I’ve written about my love of board games before; my collection of board game pieces as well as a vintage game I once found on my travels. (I’m still on the lookout for an old Spirograph by the way.)

I think board games are a great family distraction. Not only do they create some wonderful low-tech family time, but kids can learn a lot from board game play. It depends on the game of course (one can safely assume that kids learn different things from chess than they would playing Twister for example), but board games can be a great way to learn how to count, strategize, bluff … all kinds of skills that are handy to have in real life. (This is exactly why we’re going to be teaching our daughters how to play poker this summer, but that’s a post for another day.)

As some of you know we are in the middle of renovating our home. At one point we got to wondering, how can we incorporate board games into the design of our home?

Well, you can do what we’re doing and build game storage right in!

Why should cool-looking vintage games be left mouldering in the basement, out of sight out of mind? If the games are easily accessible they’re more likely to be played.This doesn’t look like very much right now, but it’s one side of our living room. Within the next month or so this space will become a custom floor-to-ceiling bookshelf. Deeper shelving on the right side will be reserved just for board games.

I found another great board-game storage related idea on Pinterest the other day. You can frame your board games and turn them into wall art. This person made their own frames for board games, but I wonder if you could find some older frames that would fit. The game pieces are simply stored behind the frame. All you need to do is take it off the wall to play. Isn’t that smart?

I also love the idea of incorporating your favourite board games right into the furniture, like this table that has been mod-podged with a whole bunch of stuff, including a board game. I love it. And here’s a great coffee table hack too; a tic-tac-toe on one side, checkers and chess on the other. All you need is some chalkboard paint.

So what do you think? Is it time to bring the board games out of the basement?