For some time now I have dreamt of a board game table. Realistically I was able to actually start planning to get one last autumn when our son moved away from home and we now also have a room to put it in.
My original plan was to get a regular dining table and modify it so that it would have a recessed vault in the middle for the play area. That is an essential feature in our household due the cats. There, the game could be left unfinished, or ready for next round by covering the vault with the actual tabletop. The problem was, the table needs to be suitable for such modification and also match with other requirements like size and color. Not an easy task.
Another option would have been to get one of those fancy purpose made gaming tables. They usually offer good customizing options so one that would have been adequate would have been possible to get this way. They just happen to be quite expensive. And on top of that, shipping to Finland would have cost almost another tables worth.
During my search I saw a lot of tables people had done themselves. Many with not much, if any, woodworking experience. It's not the worlds most complex construct after all. So encouraged by those others who had done it I started to go through all those projects they had shared. After a while I found a design that matched my needs (and skill level). Just had to do a few adjustments and fix the dimensions to fit the room.
Today I went to local wood store and with the help of the staff was able to collect the proper kind of wood, cut to my measures. Just had to do some final cuts and polishing at home. Still need to add some stain to the wood and a layer of lacquer, install the led lighting and mat for the play area and it'll be ready for serious playtime.