A Homemade Solitaire Mat for the Family Games Drawer
The family games drawer often contains a pack of cards with no instructions, a few loose dice and something nobody remembers how to play. A homemade patience mat gives that ordinary pack a purpose. Rather than buying another boxed activity, you draw a simple guide that shows where the cards belong, then fold it away with the deck.
Before reaching for the pens, open PlaySolitaire, a free browser version of classic solitaire, and use its board as your layout reference. The seven columns, separate draw pile and four finishing spaces provide the map for the mat below. You are turning that digital arrangement into something the family can use with real cards.
Make room for the game to grow
Start with scrap paper rather than decorating the finished mat straight away. Lay seven cards across your table with a little room between them. Below each, imagine a column of overlapping cards extending towards you. A layout that looks tidy before dealing can become cramped halfway through a game.
Choose a sheet that fits the space you actually have, or join several sheets along their backs. An old roll of wrapping paper can work if its reverse is plain. Test whether the surface stays still when a card slides across it. If it curls, flatten it under books before drawing. Leave drinks and glue elsewhere while the cards are out.
Draw a map, not a rulebook
Across the lower part of the paper, mark seven starting spaces. Number them one to seven to remind the player how many cards go into each column. Above them, leave room for the unused deck, the cards turned from it and four separate finishing piles. These finishing piles are called foundations.
Write short labels beside the spaces, not directly underneath where cards will hide them. A small heart, diamond, club and spade can identify the foundations. Keep the background plain enough to read the cards easily. There is no need for a perfect drawing, matching stationery or a printer. The useful part is being able to tell one area from another at a glance.
Let the first deal test your design
Use a complete pack of 52 cards without jokers. Deal one card into the first column, two into the next and continue until the last has seven. Only the top card of each column starts face up. The remaining cards become the draw pile.
Now check the mat before decorating it further. Can the player see every exposed card without lifting another? Is there space beside the draw pile for turned cards? If a hand keeps brushing a neighbouring column, spread the starting spaces apart. This trial is more useful than making an elaborate board and discovering that the cards do not fit.
Add the reminders your household needs
Leave a narrow strip along the edge for a few prompts. For classic Klondike, the columns build down in alternating colours, while the foundations build up by suit from ace to king. An empty column takes a king. Keep these reminders brief enough to consult without stopping the game for a long explanation.
The browser reference is useful again here. Compare a possible move on its board with the rule you have written, rather than relying on a half remembered family version. Choose a draw setting before playing with the physical pack. Drawing one card at a time keeps each newly turned card visible in turn. If you later choose another setting, change the reminder rather than squeezing contradictory instructions onto the mat.
Keep the finished mat easy to use
Let a child who enjoys drawing add a border, while another person checks that none of the labels will disappear beneath the cards. That gives the making part a shared purpose without turning the actual game into a competition. Patience is still a game for one player; everyone need not take turns moving the same cards.
When it is time to clear the table, gather the pack and fold the mat into the games drawer. A paper sleeve or elastic band keeps them together. The next person no longer has to remember the arrangement from scratch. They can unfold the map, deal the cards and get on with the interesting part: deciding what to move.
