I have been looking at endless youtube games review channels and review sites and seen that increasingly the thing to have if you are serious about gaming is a gaming table. I’m sure everyone knows what I mean, one of those luxurious looking items, hewn from some expensive looking hardwood, looking like it was built to survive a nuclear blast, built in cup holders, dice tower, card holders and finally a smart looking surface made from the finest of smooth non-snagging man made materials, atop a surface so soft and cushioned that you would be happy sleeping on it, all topped off with some wholly unnecessary but ‘oh my god do they make it look cool’ LED lights. As described these things come at a price, generally a hefty premium over a respectable dining table and chairs, in the region of many hundreds if not several thousands of pounds/dollars for something approaching the specifications described above. I decided to try to replicate at least some of the gaming table experience as cheaply, and with as little skill and effort as possible.
The driver to build this cheap gaming table came during the first lockdown of the pandemic. I lost my dining table to my wife and kids so they could work around it, and while a gaming table means you can leave a game set up under the leaves of the table leaving a functional dining table, I did not have that luxury. Of course their needs were greater than mine, but it did mean the loss of the best surface in the house to game on. As we have a spare bedroom that I could use, I bought a large-ish trestle table 6ft (180cm) by 2ft 6in (75cm) with adjustable height from Strictly Tables and Chairs to turn it in to a games room. The logic of it being height adjustable was that it could be used whilst sitting on the sofa or with dining chairs depending on where the mood or enforced choice of location took us.
After the purchase it quickly transpired that a hard plastic surface (albeit lightly textured) was not ideal to play on as it was difficult to lift the cards off, and whilst being incredibly sturdy and stable felt cheap to play on. Rather than abandon the table, rectifying the main problem of the surface was seen as the most sensible path to gaming nirvana. In order to improve the scratchy plastic top we found that tablecloths that are easily, tightly and securely fitted to the table could be bought cheaply. The one we found was made from spandex, designed for a trestle table, and secured to the legs of the table for a nice fitted feel.
Whilst this improved the feel of the table, it was still directly on to a hard surface which made it difficult to pick up cards. In order to improve this still further and aid in my ham fisted inability to pick up cards we decided to add a soft layer underneath the cloth, we came up with a number of ideas (including additional table cloths underneath the top cloth to create a more padded surface, but in the end found a company (GB Foam Direct) that could provide foam of varying densities, cut to any size, this provides a nice uniform surface and is not lumpy like it would be adding table cloths underneath the table cloth. We got a sheet of high density super hard foam (GB 42SH) cut to the dimensions of the table and 6mm thick. This is placed underneath the tablecloth to give a softer feel to the table and make cards/components easier to pick up, the foam is dense and stable enough not to turn the table into an unstable squidgy mess.
The total cost of the project:
Table circa £50
Tablecloth circa £15
Foam £15 delivered
Total cost £80
Does this provide you with a fancy gaming table that I described at the start? No it certainly is not and cannot be a replacement for a purpose built gaming table. What I think this does achieve is a cheap and cheerful way to create a budget gaming table that has a few quality of life improvements, such as a surface that is easy to slide cards and pieces across, and makes it easier to pick up gaming components. It also makes any time we do choose to play games feel a bit more premium, special, and generally improves the sense of occasion, which to us at least is priceless.