Make: Dominoes

This precious set of dominoes was made by Designing Mom Jackie for her two lucky boys. I know we all have paint swatches stashed in a drawer somewhere; it's genius that she recycled them into such a striking dominoes set! Below is how Jackie set about creating these (and pics of her adorable 8 month old, Simon...just look at those eyelashes!).


DIY Dominoes
By Jackie

A couple of months ago, Gabe came home with a stack of 2 x 4 wood chips that I just knew were destined for something crafty. I decided to make a set of dominoes out of them since Graham (3.5 years old) is starting to be interested in games and numbers. Yet again, I was on a mission to use ingredients that could be recycled from the clutter filling my kitchen drawers. Here’s what I came up with:

I am always drawn to those free paint swatches at the hardware store for some reason; they seem to be calling my name. I love the color sequences, and the descriptions always crack me up: grandma's sweater for sky blue, yours truly for a bubble gum pink, pure joy for a butter yellow. The names get stranger when you get to the darker hues: witching hour, soot, abyss, nugget. We have a bunch of these left over from various past paint projects so they were the first things I grabbed.

I also wanted to use something with pictures so that the dominoes could double as a story-telling device or a matching game. I used pages from this fun little book that I bought on a remainder table a few years back called, How To, which includes vintage images of how to do everything from baking a cake to wrapping an ace bandage to doing the butterfly stroke.

Here's what you will need to make a set of your own:

1) 28 wood or cardboard pieces (you can make them any size you like)
2) sharpie
3) ruler
4) jar of mod podge (I like the matte one, but it also comes in glossy)
5) smallish paint brush
6) exacto knife or scissors
7) paint swatches, wrapping paper, newspaper, vintage book, art paper, etc.

I recommend doing the lines and dots for the dominoes first (in case they smear or are crooked). I did these by hand with a ruler and a sharpie so they look very handmade. If you are more of a perfectionist about these kinds of things, you could use rub-on decals instead. For the back of the tiles, I experimented with the colors and the images until I came up with pairings that I liked. Once those were set, I trimmed down the paint swatches and pictures, then painted on the mod podge to adhere the paper to the wood. It dries pretty quickly and the surface is surprisingly smooth. Mod podge is pretty much an instant gratification product. I love it.


With two little kids, I found this to be a project that I had to start and stop a few times over the course of the week. To keep track of the pieces that I completed, I kept a little tally sheet in the bag with all my supplies.


Graham and Simon were drawn to these as soon as I laid them on the carpet for them to explore (though I do not recommend these as teething toys!) so I guess I'm not the only one around here that has a thing for those paint swatches...