Do-It-Yourself Rummoli Board

Do you remember Rummoli from when you were a child? I used to play with my grandparents and it was a treasured memory I’d like to revisit with my kids. This DIY Rummoli board is made with ¼” mdf and some spray paint, and will last for years – so they too can share the fun with their kids!

My parents recently brought out their Rummoli board from 1940. It’s a Copp Clark paper version that my Step-Dad used to play as a kid, and I can’t believe it’s still in such great condition! That’s 79 years!

We introduced my girls to the game and (of course) they LOVED it.

Nothing at all to do with taking their grandparents money I’m sure.

And I’m sure that the fact that we played with nickels (Canada no longer has pennies) didn’t sway them either… lol

I was worried that my girls wouldn’t be as careful as my Step-Dad and his brothers had been and we’d eventually destroy this heirloom with our frenetic play, so I decided to make a more sturdy DIY Rummoli board out of ¼” MDF.

DIY Rummoli board

cut a sheet of ¼” mdf down to 24″ square
mark the centre of each side.
mark 5″ on either side of that centre mark
connect the perpendicular sides at the 5″ marks

(Thank you to my Step-Dad for figuring this out – it melted my brain lol)

This will give you 8 sides that are all approximately 10″ (give or take an 1/8th) long.

5. The 45° angle on your mitre saw will cut pretty accurately to the lines you’ve marked.

6. Repeat until you have an octagon

7. Use primer (I like Zinsser Bullseye 1-2-3) and coat the top and sides of your DIY Rummoli board. MDF will suck paint up like a sponge, so it’s really important to prime here so your board doesn’t warp. Once dry, sand with 320 grit sandpaper and add a second coat of primer if needed.

8. I used 2 coats of Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch spray paint in a gloss white – lightly sanding between coats.

9. While your DIY Rummoli board is drying, cut 3/8″ strips of your ¼” MDF on the table saw. These will be the dividers to keep your coins in place in each section of the board.

10. Prime and paint the strips – we’ll cut them to length later.

11. Cut three pieces of ¼” mdf to 7 ¾” square.

12. Mark the centre of each side (like we did above) and then mark in 1 ½” on either side of that centre point.

13. Connect the perpendicular 1 ½” markings and cut on your mitre saw at a 45° angle. I taped the three boards together and batch cut them. This will be the centre “winner’s pot” of your DIY Rummoli board.

14. Use your 3/8″ strips (from above) and mark a frame on your winner’s pot.

15. Take two of the three boards, tape them together and drill holes at each corner. This will be where you feed your scroll saw blade through to cut the centre out of the pot.

You’ll be left with a frame like this:

16. Glue the 2 frame pieces together and then glue to the base piece and clamp until dry.

17. Sand smooth and coat with 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of gloss white (sanding lightly between coats).

18. I created stencils on my Silhouette Cameo using “Impact” font and sizing each word until it was approximately 1 ¼” tall. You may have to adjust the character spacing on the larger bits of text like “Sequence” and “Poker Pot”.

19. My Step-Dad took the time and effort to make sure that all of the stencils were centred in each section of the board and were ½” down from the top edge of each section of the DIY Rummoli board.

20. Paint out the stencilled sections with red and black paint (2 coats) and then peel the stencils off once dry.

21. Line the winner’s pot up to be as close to centre in your DIY Rummoli board and then glue down the 3/8″ strips projecting outwards from the corners of the pot to the corners of the board.

Because the strips were just ¼” mdf, they were easily cut with pruning shears (that’s what we had on-hand) and then sanded smooth. I touched up the ends with a bit of white paint.

I took my DIY Rummoli board one step further and added a clear coat over top – you might NOT want to do this… the clear coat actually ended up pulling up some of the red and black paint causing wrinkles. UGH!!

I’m going to have to buy some tokens or something – my poor parents are going to go broke with my card-shark kids after them to play all the time.

The centre tray lifts out so you (or the kids) can easily grab their winnings.

The only other thing I might add to our DIY Rummoli board is a felt backing. It’s not scratching the table right now, but over time it might make some small marks. Better safe than sorry right?