Poker Table - Gift Project

Here is a fun project that makes a great gift!

This is a very simple poker table that can be stored behind a couch in a dorm room or an apartment, and pulled out when desired. To use it, you simply place it on a card table, a kitchen table, or even a coffee table.

We went to Home Depot in order to buy our wood. Sarah and I bought a thinner sheet of plywood, but I recommend a half inch sheet of plywood so that there is no question of its stability. It comes 4' x 8', so have the store cut it to 4' x 4'. The store won't cut the corners, so you'll have to do that at home.

To do that you will need to measure 14 inches from each corner and cut the same distance for each corner, creating an octagon from the 4' x 4' sheet of plywood. Now sand the edges of the octagon and save the cut corners for some project, or until the time comes when you decide you no longer need to have 4 exact wooden triangles for any possible reason. That would be what I plan to do...

Once sanded, take brown spray paint, and paint the edges

plus the area about 12 inches in from the outer sides.

Let this dry.

Take 1 yard of green felt and measure in on each corner by 10 inches.

This will create a felt octogan that will fit inside of the plywood octogan.

Now you will need to spray the felt with adhesive to adhere it to the wood. We used Krylon Spray Adhesive. We also sprayed it on the full center area of the plywood - on the area that was not painted brown. In order to do this we covered the brown painted areas in newspaper. I don't really know if you need to do this, because ultimately you are going to seal the painted areas. But we did it.

Center the felt onto the plywood and smooth it down.

Now glue down playing cards in any attractive pattern, onto the brown painted areas.
At this point you can paint varnish onto the brown painted area that contains the cards.

This will protect the edges and makes a nice shiny finish.



DON'T look at what surrounds the table...
yes, the weightbench used as a giant clothes hanger, etc...

 Ta da!! A present for your college kid, your friend, or a brother or sister... Sarah made hers for her boyfriend, and she liked it so much she made one for her brother.

Happy Monday!

Enjoy!