Vintage Board Game Shadow Boxes

When we finally finished our game room, I really had dreams of decorating in a 50's diner sort of theme, but since I am not the only voice in this family, I was out voted.  Which is okay, because I love our game room now.  I thought it would be fun to decorate the walls with various board games.  I had already thrifted some vintage games along the way.  I had also collected some favorites from my childhood that brought back good memories.  What I couldn't find, though, was shadowboxes that were the right size to display them.  I did go to a local framing shop to get prices.  They were in the middle of framing a scrabble board at the time.  I asked what the price would be, and they quoted me over $200!!  Well, I had six games that I wanted to frame, but I didn't have $1200.  So, I was off to the local home improvement store.  

I purchased some MDF and mouldings.  Then I purchased some plexiglass (cut to size) from a glass/window shop.  Altogether, I spent $120 ($90 for the plexiglass alone.)  Even though it was a chunk of money, it was only 1/10 of what it could have cost.  It took awhile to put them together.  Mostly just indecision on my part of how to lay out the playing pieces.  But once that was decided, I glued them down, put them together, and hung them on the wall.  Of course, my kids give me a bad time.  They always say, "It sure would be nice to sit down and play some games tonight, but, No, Mom had to go and frame them all!"  Which is so untrue!  We have a whole closet full of games...although, I have a few ideas for some of them!  I tried my best to get good pictures, but I was having an issue with lighting, and the flash didn't like the plexiglass!

My sister-in-law thrifted this parcheesi board for me.  She thought I would like the word "HOME" in the middle...and she was right!

Monopoly, a classic!  I have plans of decoupaging the left over money and cards onto serving trays and coasters for the game room.

I have to admit, I have never played Pente, but I really liked the graphics on this one, and the colorful playing pieces.

Clue is a great one for the color it brings into the room.

Scrabble took a while because I was trying to form words from the tiles that described a family.  Sometimes, I would think of a great word, but not have the right letters.  After I was finished, though, I realized I had another scrabble game that I could have used tiles from, which would have made it so much easier!  Oh well, it's nice to stretch the old brain once in a while!

Stratego is one that brings back happy childhood memories.  I used to play it all the time with my brothers.  I loved the inside of this box with the picture of the family, probably from the 60's.  The mom is in a dress, the dad is in a suit, two kids—one boy, one girl.  It is an ideal scene of family bonding time.  I just had to display that part of the box in the center of the board.  (Kind of funny that the whole premise of this game is two armies waring against each other, though.)