How To Make Your Own Monopoly Game

Making your own Monopoly board game can be a really fun activity. Not only do you get the pleasure of customizing your game to be exactly how you want it, but it can be much cheaper than it would cost to buy one.

Here’s a photo of the first Monopoly board game I ever made, back in 2008! It may not look like it, but we actually had a lot of fun.

I’ve made several Monopoly boards over the years, and in this step-by-step guide, I’ll give you all of the info, measurements, and advice you need to make your own Monopoly board game at home.

How to make your own Monopoly board

1. Choose a theme

Before you start making your board, it’s good to spend some time thinking of a theme for your game.

The original Monopoly board was based on streets in Atlantic City and the UK board is based on streets in London. But you don’t have to copy either of these.

The great thing about making your own Monopoly board is that you can base the street names on whatever you like. They don’t even have to be streets.

Some ideas for Monopoly property names are:

• Streets in your town
• Places you’ve traveled to
• Bucket list destinations
• Members of your family
• Animals or pets
• Things from your favorite TV show
• Bands that you like

2. List the streets

Once you’ve decided on a theme, you’ll want to make a list of all of the streets in your Monopoly game. It’s helpful to write these out on paper before you start to build your board.

You will need names for:

• 2 Browns
• 3 Light Blues
• 3 Pinks
• 3 Oranges
• 3 Yellows
• 3 Reds
• 3 Greens
• 2 Dark Blues
• 4 Railroads

If you want to, you can also think of alternative names for Water Works, Electric Company, Chance, Community Chest, Income Tax, and Luxury Tax. Or, you can just keep these as they are.

If you want to use all of the original Monopoly squares, then here’s a list of all spaces on the Monopoly board.

You don’t have to stick with the original colors if you don’t want to either – when you’re deciding how to make a Monopoly board, you can replace the colors if you wish – but it is much easier to stick with the existing ones.

3. Decide how big you want your Monopoly board to be

A classic Monopoly board is 19 1/2 inches (50 cm) square, but you can make your board any size you like. A bunch of students once created a Monopoly board that was 30 meters across, so if you want to beat the World record, then perhaps you can go even bigger?

You’ll find it easiest if you stick to the classic Monopoly board sizes, though. That’s because I already have a list of Monopoly dimensions that gives you all the exact sizes of the board, squares, cards, money, tokens, houses, and hotels in both inches and centimeters. I suggest that you follow this if you want to make everything line up perfectly.

4. Gather the materials

Traditionally, Monopoly boards are made of paper and cloth fibers, although you can also get some luxury wooden Monopoly boards. The easiest way to make a Monopoly board at home is from a large piece of cardboard as this is easy to cut with scissors, yet sturdy enough to stand up to some use.

If you have the time and the patience, quilted Monopoly boards look absolutely stunning. But all of that embroidery is sure to take years to complete.

As well as a board, you’re going to need some thin card for the Chance, Community Chest, and Title Deed cards as well as paper for the cash. You’ll also need some scissors, a pencil, a long ruler and a collection of colored pens, crayons or paints.

5. Make the Monopoly board

Now it’s time to make your Monopoly board. You’ll want to draw everything out neatly using a pencil and ruler, making sure the spaces are even before going over the lines with a black pen.

If your board is 19 1/2 inches (50 cm), then start by drawing the corner spaces which are 2 1/2 inches (6.5 cm) square.

Not including the corners, there are 9 spaces on each side. These are 1 1/2 inches (4 cm) wide.

If you want something to copy, take a look at this Monopoly board template.

If you have a printer at home, you may decide that you want to print the board rather than draw it out. This is simple to do across six sheets of letter paper.

Once the outline of your board is ready, carefully color in the top of each space and write in the names that you’ve decided on.

You’ll also want to write the price on each space. I’ve listed these here for you…

Color	US Name	UK Name	Price
Brown	Mediterranean Avenue	Old Kent Road	60
Brown	Baltic Avenue	Whitechapel Road	60
Light Blue	Oriental Avenue	The Angel Islington	100
Light Blue	Vermont Avenue	Euston Road	100
Light Blue	Connecticut Avenue	Pentonville Road	120
Pink	St Charles Place	Pall Mall	140
Pink	States Avenue	Whitehall	140
Pink	Virginia Avenue	Northumberland Avenue	160
Orange	St James Place	Bow Street	180
Orange	Tennessee Avenue	Marlborough Street	180
Orange	New York Avenue	Vine Street	200
Red	Kentucky Avenue	The Strand	220
Red	Indiana Avenue	Fleet Street	220
Red	Illinois Avenue	Trafalgar Square	240
Yellow	Atlantic Avenue	Leicester Square	260
Yellow	Ventnor Avenue	Coventry Street	260
Yellow	Marvin Gardens	Piccadilly	280
Green	Pacific Avenue	Regent Street	300
Green	North Carolina Avenue	Oxford Street	300
Green	Pennsylvania Avenue	Bond Street	320
Dark Blue	Park Place	Park Lane	350
Dark Blue	Boardwalk	Mayfair	400

6. Make the Title Deed cards

Once your board is complete, the next step is to make the title deed cards. Here’s what these look like…

Monopoly Title Deed cards are usually 3 1/8 inches (8 cm) tall and 2 inches (5 cm) wide. It doesn’t matter if yours are a little different, the main thing is that they’re all the same.

I’ve added all of the information you need to make the Title Deed cards in the table below.

Monopoly Title Deed Template

Color	US Name	UK Name	Rent	Rent with color set	Rent (1 House)	Rent (2 Houses)	Rent (3 Houses)	Rent (4 Houses)	Rent (Hotel)	Houses Cost	Hotels Cost (plus 4 houses)	Price	Mortgage Value
Brown	Mediterranean Avenue	Old Kent Road	2	4	10	30	90	160	250	50	50	60	30
Brown	Baltic Avenue	Whitechapel Road	4	8	20	60	180	320	450	50	50	60	30
Light Blue	Oriental Avenue	The Angel Islington	6	12	30	90	270	400	550	50	50	100	50
Light Blue	Vermont Avenue	Euston Road	6	12	30	90	270	400	550	50	50	100	50
Light Blue	Connecticut Avenue	Pentonville Road	8	16	40	100	300	450	600	50	50	120	60
Pink	St Charles Place	Pall Mall	10	20	50	150	450	625	750	100	100	140	70
Pink	States Avenue	Whitehall	10	20	50	150	450	625	750	100	100	140	70
Pink	Virginia Avenue	Northumberland Avenue	12	24	60	180	500	700	900	100	100	160	80
Orange	St James Place	Bow Street	14	28	70	200	550	750	950	100	100	180	90
Orange	Tennessee Avenue	Marlborough Street	14	28	70	200	550	750	950	100	100	180	90
Orange	New York Avenue	Vine Street	16	32	80	220	600	800	1000	100	100	200	100
Red	Kentucky Avenue	The Strand	18	36	90	250	700	875	1050	150	150	220	110
Red	Indiana Avenue	Fleet Street	18	36	90	250	700	875	1050	150	150	220	110
Red	Illinois Avenue	Trafalgar Square	20	40	100	300	750	925	1100	150	150	240	120
Yellow	Atlantic Avenue	Leicester Square	22	44	110	330	800	975	1150	150	150	260	130
Yellow	Ventnor Avenue	Coventry Street	22	44	110	330	800	975	1150	150	150	260	130
Yellow	Marvin Gardens	Piccadilly	24	48	120	360	850	1025	1200	150	150	280	140
Green	Pacific Avenue	Regent Street	26	52	130	390	900	1100	1275	200	200	300	150
Green	North Carolina Avenue	Oxford Street	26	52	130	390	900	1100	1275	200	200	300	150
Green	Pennsylvania Avenue	Bond Street	28	56	150	450	1000	1200	1400	200	200	320	160
Dark Blue	Park Place	Park Lane	35	70	175	500	1100	1300	1500	200	200	350	175
Dark Blue	Boardwalk	Mayfair	50	100	200	600	1400	1700	2000	200	200	400	200

On the reverse of each card, you should write the name of the property, the mortgage value, and the unmortgage value (this is the mortgage value +10%).

7. Make the Chance and Community Chest Cards

Now it’s time to make your Chance and Community Chest cards. There are 16 of each of these and they’re the same size as Title Deed cards.

If you’re sticking with the classic Chance and Community Chest cards, then you can refer to this list of all of the Monopoly Chance and Community Chest cards. Note that the cards changed in October 2021, so you may want to use the newest version.

If you’re making a personalized Monopoly board then writing your own Chance and Community Chest cards is a good idea. It can make your game really funny to play!

If you opt to make up your own cards, I recommend that you make them similar to the originals. So for each card that ends with ‘Collect $100’, your version should also say ‘Collect $100’. Otherwise, you can upset the balance of the game too much. It would be a shame if the game ended early because you wrote ‘Pay $2000’ on a Chance card, wouldn’t it?

If you have a printer at home, you can save time by using my free printable Chance and Community Chest card templates that allow you to add your own text.

8. Make the Monopoly money

Making Monopoly money can take some time as you’ll need to make 210 individual banknotes in the following denominations:

• 30 x $500 bills
• 30 x $100. Bills
• 30 x $50 Bills
• 30 x $20 Bills
• 30 x $10Bills
• 30 x $5 Bills
• 30 x $1 Bills

In classic Monopoly, each banknote is 4 inches wide by 2 inches high (10 cm x 5 cm).

If you plan to print your Monopoly money, then here are some free Monopoly money templates that you’re welcome to use.

9. Make the tokens

When Monopoly was first invented, the game didn’t come with any tokens. Instead, players were asked to use items from around the home such as buttons, coins, or charms.

Tokens were first introduced in 1935 and they have changed several times over the years. Here are the latest Monopoly playing pieces.

10. Source two dice

If you already have another board game that has dice then you can borrow these for your game.

Otherwise, this video will show you how to make dice from paper…

11. That’s it!

Your homemade Monopoly game is now ready to play. Enjoy!

Of course, you won’t have an instruction sheet for your homemade game, so if you have any queries over the rules, then be sure to use the rules section of this website to clarify anything you’re unsure of.

Even if you know what you’re doing, I also recommend that you take a look at these 16 Little-known Monopoly Rules That Everyone Gets Wrong. Many people are very surprised to discover that they’ve actually been playing Monopoly wrong their whole lives. Eek!

Here’s another photo of me (on the right) with a homemade Monopoly board that we made back in the day. That’s my friend Katie on the left. We’ve been playing Monopoly together since we were six and have been known to rip banknotes in half in disagreements over the rules!

Easier ways to make your own Monopoly board

If you’ve read through all of those instructions and have decided that making your own Monopoly game sounds a bit too much like hard work, then don’t worry. There are a couple of shortcuts that you can use to make a personalized Monopoly board in much less time.

1. My Monopoly

My Monopoly is an official Hasbro board game that allows you to create a personalized game using your own photos and captions. You can take photos from your phone, computer, or even straight from Facebook and print them out onto the My Monopoly sticker sheets.

2. Buy a personalized Monopoly board

If you like the idea of a personalized game, but would rather someone else make it for you, then take a look at www.personalisedmonopoly.com which is an official Hasbro website.

There are also plenty of sellers on Etsy who will make a custom game for you, as well as some businesses that do this online if you Google it, although I cannot vouch for the quality or legality of these personalized Monopoly sets.

Can you make your own Monopoly game and sell it?

The Monopoly game board, playing pieces, name and logo are all trademarks of Hasbro, Inc. You are not allowed to make your own Monopoly game and sell it, as you may end up with a lawsuit on your hands.

While there are some unofficial versions of Monopoly like Dog-Opoly and Cat-Opoly, these are different enough from the Hasbro game that these companies get away with it.

Final word

There are three main bits of advice I’d give to anyone looking to create your own Monopoly board:

• Keep the structure simple – follow the existing template
• Be as creative as you can be when you decide on properties and cards…
• …but pick something you’ll want to keep returning to, not a flash-in-the-pan idea

That last one’s key, because if you put a lot of effort into your custom Monopoly set, you’ll want to use it again and again. So it’s nice to have a theme that won’t get boring.

But if you need inspiration for the tokens to use, why not check out every token that’s ever been used in a mainline Monopoly set?

Related Posts:

• How to Make Monopoly into a Drinking Game
• How to Play Monopoly with Real Money
• The Monopoly Man Has NO Monocle: Here’s why you think he does