One of the things my daughter and I love to do together is building puzzles. This summer we were working on one together on the coffee table. We would work on it, take a break, a few days later work on it some more, then take a break and so on. Before I knew it, the puzzle had been sitting on the coffee table for three weeks and it still wasn’t done.
It was starting to annoy me. After a few more days, I broke. I destroyed our work and put it back in the box. My daughter was so disappointed. And seeing her upset in anyway always breaks my heart. So, I had a solution.
I asked Kevin to build me a DIY puzzle board. What’s a puzzle board? Well, it is essentially a board you build a puzzle on that can be moved. When I’m sick of it in one room, I can shift it to another. And then bring it back again when it’s time to work on it more.
Puzzle boards are also great for any kind of game that might take longer than expected – like Monopoly. For us, a DIY puzzle board was the solution to all our puzzling problems.
Family fun time
Honestly, having a puzzle board has made working on puzzles so much more pleasurable because we don’t have to rush through them. We added handles to the board so it would be easy to move. The trim piece makes it much easier to keep all the pieces on the board. We are prone to losing a piece under the table or even under the table cloth. Those little trim pieces eliminate that.
The puzzle in this photo is taking a lot longer than I thought it would. In fact, I had planned to finish it for this post. I PURPOSELY bought this gorgeous puzzle {HERE} for this post.
I love all the Cavellini Puzzles and they’re my favorite to work on because they’re so detail and pretty.
This one is 1,000 pieces and generally, starting on the boarder is a smart idea. It just felt impossible with this one so we started with the flowers and matching the colors.
Here’s how we made a simple DIY puzzle board…
Supplies
- Sanded plywood – Standard puzzle boards are 36 x 26, but I wanted mine a bit smaller to fit between posts on our coffee table. Our’s is 33 x24.
- 1-inch trim
- 2 cabinet handles
- Wood glue
- Sandpaper
- Stain and rag to apply
- Miter saw
- Hand saw
Steps
- Cut the plywood to size, either with a table saw or see if they will do it for you at the hardware store.
- Sand down the board lightly, especially the place where you cut it.
- Cut your trim pieces to size using the miter saw. Then, using a miter saw again cut them again at a 45 degree angle. You want to angle the trim pieces on each end at 45 degrees so they fit together properly.
- Glue the trim pieces down to the edges of the puzzle board. Wipe up any access wood glue. Use clamps to hold them in place. Let them dry at least 24 hours.
- Once dry, remove the clamps and then sand down the edges a bit, especially in any areas where the glue might have leaked.
- Stain in the color of your choice. We used a mix of Early American and Briarsmoke. I believe it was ¾ Early American and ¼ Briarsmoke.
- Let the stain dry.
- Attach the handles to the board and then use for puzzles, games or even an centerpiece or charcutier board tray.
Our puzzle board supplies
Here are a few of the things Kevin used to create the puzzle board that you can see in the video above.
Hart Cordless Hand Saw – Used for cutting our board.
DeWalt Miter Saw – Used for cutting the trim pieces at multiple angles.
Wood glue – Used to make everything work!
Clamps – Used to hold everything together while drying.
Vintage Wildflowers Cavellini Puzzle -<3
So, what do you think of the puzzle board? Let us know if comments below!
Thank you so much for visiting today, friends! I hope you’ll come back again to see what else is happening at Sugar Maple Farmhouse! See see more of our DIY’s click {HERE}. Also, make sure to check out our Limewash Fireplace project {HERE}!
I need to make one of these! I love how it turned out.
This is such a great idea! We love puzzles, but the pieces are always all over the place. I need one of these.
I do love to make puzzles but have not done one in a few years. If I do one a board like this makes so much sense and saves a lot of lost pieces.
What a great idea! My husband loves doing puzzles so he needs one of these.
This is such a clever idea! I would love to do something like this.
What a lovely idea! I always have fun doing puzzles, and we don’t do them often enough. This is a great way to be able to do puzzles whenever.
Our neighbor made me something similar recently. I absolutely love it!
This is so nice. I love doing puzzles, so I would love this. I need to get one for myself.
I lovw puzzles! Will try this out
Looks so fun..! I enjoy playing puzzles so thanks for this!!
My family and I like puzzles a lot and having a good puzzle board is a great gift for us.
Nice article. I love the idea of making one. I really enjoy playing puzzles whenever I’m bored.
OMG I need to make this!
That is such a great idea! Makes it easy to move your puzzles out of the way. without disturbing them. Seems easy to make too!
So cute, my sister is super into puzzles so I’ll have to make it for her.
This is a fantastic idea. I am going to have my husband make us one.
this board looks so beautiful; and I think we used a poster frame we had once for a large puzzle that took lots of time. For the next time, I will have to keep this in mind
The puzzle board is such a clever idea. My dad would find one very useful.
This is such a great idea, ill have to share this with my mom she loves puzzls so much. this is so great 🙂
That is an amazing idea! I will have to get one of those!
Love this idea would like to try it. Thanks for sharing this fun DIY
That is such an awesome idea. I love doing puzzles with my kids.
This is beautiful! Can’t wait to see the puzzle complete!
This is super fun! I would love to make this with my son. I am sure he will enjoy.
Love this idea! Especially since I LOVE puzzles!
This is a fun activities with your kids especially on this pandemic to keep them busy. Also its develops their creativity.
Indeed a very clever idea. Now, I want to do the same! I’ll share this with my sister and let her know about this so we can do this together.
What thickness is your plywood?
I would like to know the same thing too please?
1/4 inch. And thank you for saying please!
1/4 inch