Easy Homemade Foosball Table and Checkerboard

What do you do to entertain your kids on holiday breaks, cold rainy days, or any day you’re stuck at home? Do you ever run out of activities and it’s not even dinnertime yet? Well, I have put together a tutorial for a super fun foosball table and checkerboard to keep the kiddos busy!

Here is what you will need:

1. Spray paint

2. Clear glaze spray

3. Acrylic paints (green, black, white and two colors of choice for the foosball players)

4. Paper cups

5. Clothespins

6. Lightweight foam balls (a ping pong ball or plastic ball would probably work just as well)

7. 6 – 36″, 5/16″ Wooden dowels

8. Exacto knife

9. Marker

10. Large cardboard box

11. Screwdriver (not shown)

12. Mini oreos (or just plain checker pieces, not shown)

13. 1 Straw (not shown)

14. Masking tape (not shown)

I started by grabbing a costco box, spray painting it white, and then applying a clear glaze.

*I recommend covering the packing tape on the bottom of the box with masking tape before you paint it white. When you remove the masking tape after painting the checkerboard, the masking tape will take the paint off of the packing tape.

While you’re waiting for the box to dry, you can start painting the clothespins. You will need 12 clothespins, 6 for each foosball team.

My youngest loves painting, so he was excited to help!

Now while the clothespins dry, you can have your helper(s) paint the inside bottom of the box green.

*I recommend gluing the inside bottom flaps before you paint it if they aren’t already. We found this out when my boys were playing foosball and their players kept getting stuck on the loose flaps.

Your kiddos can decorate the outside of the box while the green paint dries.

Once all the paint is dry, you will need to measure and mark where the wooden dowels need to go.

Make sure you measure the height where each dowel will go as well, so they will be even.

I was going to use the exacto knife to cut holes for the dowels, but my brilliant husband suggested I use a screwdriver. It worked perfectly!

You should be able to push the screwdriver right through.

Then on the other side, push the screwdriver through the whole again to make it uniform on both sides.

While I had the screwdriver out, I thought it would be fun to make a score tracker. I just poked 10 holes, and cut the end of a straw to be used like a peg. So as your kids score goals they can keep track of their own points.

You are now ready to insert the wooden dowels.

Clip your clothes pins onto the wooden dowels and you are just about done with the foosball table!

Grab your pencil, ruler, and ball to measure and mark the goal.

Using the e-xacto knife and ruler, score and cut out the goal on both ends.

Ta-da!

Now that your foosball table is done you can flip the box over and start working on the checkerboard. Using the ruler, mark the ends of your board.

So, I have a two little tape monsters and they used up all of my masking tape. Do any of you have tape monsters at your house? Luckily I had some washi tape and I used that to block out my checkerboard.

Now that you’ve placed the tape where the checkerboard will be, start measuring and marking your board. You should have a column of 8 squares on all sides.

Now label the squares “W” for white and “B” for black.

Grab your x-acto knife and ruler and start scoring and removing the tape squares marked “B”.

Once you’ve removed all of the “B” tape squares, start painting these same squares black. When the paint is dry you can take off the rest of the “W” tape squares and…

You have your very own checkerboard/foosball table! My boys have been having a BLAST with it. We used mini oreos (again, totally optional), so when you capture your opponent’s checker you get to eat it! Now you’ve even got snack time covered.

There is some very serious concentrating going on here.

When your kiddos are ready for another game, flip the box over and they can play foosball! You will be pleasantly surprised at how long they keep themselves entertained! My boys have had so much fun with their checkerboard/foosball table, and I know your kids will too.

Check out a few more of our favorite ways to keep the kiddos busy over winter break!

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