Card Tables

Most card tables are built to disappear. Thirty-four inches of folding plastic with a carry handle, out for the game and back in the closet by eleven. That is a perfectly good way to play cards and a poor piece of furniture. Bandpass builds the other kind: a solid hardwood table sized for four, with an upholstered playing surface and four matching chairs, made to sit in a den or a nook and look like it belongs there on the nights nobody is playing. The Mimosa is $4,800 in walnut, cherry, white oak, or maple, built to order in our Edmonds, Washington workshop on a roughly 20-week calendar, with free shipping in the continental US.

A Card Table You Don't Fold Up

The folding card table solved a specific problem: a surface for four, cheap, gone again by morning. If cards come out twice a year, that is the right tool and you should buy one.

The calculation changes when the game is a standing appointment. A table that has to be set up is a table somebody has to go get, and the first Thursday nobody feels like getting it is the Thursday the game quietly stops. A permanent table removes the decision. It is already there, the surface is already right, and the only thing left to do is sit down.

It also has to survive daylight. A folding table in a den on a Tuesday afternoon looks like a folding table in a den on a Tuesday afternoon. The Mimosa was drawn to be furniture first: a compact square in solid hardwood at a scale that suits a spare corner, a nook off the living room, or a dedicated card room if you are lucky enough to have one.

The Playing Surface

Cards want a different surface than dice do, and this is where most game furniture stops thinking.

Speed cloth is the casino answer. Tight, flat, slick, with almost no nap, so a dealt card skates across the table instead of catching halfway. If your table plays poker, gin, or anything where cards get pushed rather than placed, this is the one.

Velveteen has more give and more grip. It quiets dice, holds tiles and chips where you set them, and keeps a stack from sliding when somebody leans on the edge. It is the better surface for mahjong, dominoes, and board games that live on the table for an evening.

You pick one when you order, in a colorway that suits the room rather than a casino. Our guide to choosing game table fabric goes further on the trade-off.

Card Table and Chairs, Built Together

Search for a card table and chairs set and you will mostly find a folding table bundled with four folding chairs, sold together because they ship in one box, not because they were designed as one thing.

The Mimosa's chairs are built alongside the table, in the same species, from the same run of lumber, finished at the same time. They match because they came from the same shop in the same week, and they will keep matching in ten years because they will age at the same rate. Four seats, upholstered, at a height that puts elbows where they should be for a long hand.

That matters more than it sounds. A game night is four people sitting still for three hours. Chairs are half the furniture and most of the comfort, which is a point we made at more length in our roundup of the best game table chairs.

Poker, Bridge, Mahjong, and Everything Else Four People Play

Four seats around a square surface is one of the oldest formats in the house, and nearly everything fits it.

Poker. Speed cloth, chips that stay put, and a surface nobody has to clear afterward. If you are building the whole evening, we wrote up how to host a poker night. For how a dedicated card table compares to a full recessed game table, see board game table vs poker table.

Bridge. The classic four-player square. A bridge table and a card table are the same piece of furniture under two names, and the Mimosa is sized for it.

Mahjong. Velveteen, because tiles need grip and quiet. Our mahjong table buyer's guide covers what to look for, and how to play mahjong covers the rest.

Dominoes, cribbage, and the smaller board games. Anything that fits a square and four people. A playing card table earns its footprint by not being precious about what goes on it.

Card Table Size: What Four People Actually Need

The standard folding card table is 34 inches square at about 29 inches tall, and a lot of older ones run closer to 30 inches square. Both are tight. Four adults at a 30-inch square table are playing with their forearms touching.

The Mimosa is [TK: confirm footprint] with a [TK: confirm] playing surface, which gives each seat a real working zone with room for a drink and a hand without crowding the middle of the table.

Measure the room as well as the table. Leave at least 36 inches behind each chair so people can get up without moving the person next to them, and closer to 42 inches on any side people walk past. A card table is small, which tempts people to tuck it into a space that turns out to be 6 inches too tight on one side.

When Four Seats Aren't Enough

If your group regularly runs to six or eight, a card table is the wrong shape and no amount of hardwood fixes it. The Dresden is our board game dining table, seating six or eight with a recessed vault below the dining surface, from $3,695. The full range is at board game tables.

Start Your Build

Every table is cut, assembled, upholstered, and finished by hand in Edmonds after your order comes in, in the wood and the cloth you chose. That takes about 20 weeks, and shipping is free anywhere in the continental US. Tell us the room, the species, and what your group plays most, and we will help you get the rest right.

Card Table Questions

What size is a standard card table?

Most folding card tables are 34 inches square and about 29 inches tall, though plenty of older ones are nearer 30 inches square. That is enough surface for a hand of cards and not much else. Anything you want to keep on the table, chips, a drink, a score pad, has to come out of somebody's elbow room.

Do your card tables come with chairs?

[TK: confirm whether the four chairs are included in the $4,800 or priced separately.] The chairs are built in the same species as the table and finished at the same time, so they match on delivery and keep matching as they age.

What's the best surface for a card table, felt or speed cloth?

Speed cloth if you deal a lot. It is flatter and slicker, so cards slide cleanly instead of snagging, which is why casinos use it. Velveteen or a felt-style surface if you play tiles, dice, and board games, because the extra grip keeps pieces where you put them and quiets the table. Neither is better in the abstract. Pick the one that matches the game you play most often.

Can you use a card table for poker?

Yes, and with speed cloth it is the right piece of furniture for it. A four-seat hardwood table handles a home game comfortably. If your table regularly runs six to eight players, look at a board game dining table instead, which has the length for it.

Is a card table the same as a bridge table?

In practice, yes. Bridge table is the older name for a square four-player table, and the two terms describe the same furniture. You will still see bridge table used for the folding kind, usually sold with four folding chairs.

How long does a custom card table take to build?

About 20 weeks from order to delivery. Nothing is sitting in a warehouse, so the wait is the build itself: wood selection, joinery, upholstery, and finish. If you are aiming at the holidays or a birthday, count backward and order early.