Jigsaw Puzzle Mat Puzzle Board Smooth Puzzle Plateau Portable Board Easy Move Storage Work Separate Jigsaw Mat Board up to 1000 Pieces by Ditome

After years of using slippery slabs of cardboard to work on jigsaw puzzles--since I have to move them off the table, which usually resulted in pieces coming unconnected, etc.--and a lot of "messing up" due to clumsiness when piecing, I finally decided to treat myself to something I hoped would make things easier all-around for me. I wasn't even sure I could find what I wanted. I did NOT want something heavy like a portable box or a folding table; I'd had a box and it was too heavy and too awkward to open/close to store the puzzle, with my physical problems. What a happy surprise to find this board ! It is precisely what I was hoping might exist. It's a nice size (my current 1000-piece puzzle fits with a little extra around the margins). The black "felted" backing is wonderful both to keep pieces from slipping and to make shapes and colors easier to see when you're working--I much prefer the black to any other possible background color. It is quite sturdy, only a tiny bit of "sagging" sometimes in the middle when you carry it and very little of that--the pieces don't slip or slide or come unconnected, due to the felting, so it's not a problem. You can rotate the board with no difficulty to work on sny side if you find a piece that belongs somewhere else from the section that you're currently working on. Some people complained about the flocked/felted surface catching dust, etc.--it does do that a little, but I think just one of those "lint roll" things--or the kind used for pet hair?--would pick up the bits although I haven't tried that yet since I only got the board a week ago. (You can use the reverse side, if you prefer, as well, though I don't see the point with doing jigsaw puzzles but I'm sure there are other types of puzzles or projects for which a smooth surface is preferable?) I love it! I should have looked for something like this a long time ago! Highly recommended.

If you squander way too much time on jigsaw puzzles and you find yourself frustrated by the usual problems: not enough space to spread out the pieces, pieces falling off the edges of tables, and not being able to easily reach all sides of the puzzle, you might want to try my 3-piece puzzle kit. It consists of this mat, a puzzle spinner, and a set of puzzle boxes:The boxes:https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GRM1PO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1The puzzle spinner:https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00O7WRR1M/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1This mat is the perfect size for almost all 1000 piece puzzles. However, it has no rim to keep pieces from sliding off or anyplace to put unassembled pieces. The puzzle spinner solves that problem. I put the mat on the spinner. When I need to reach the other side of the mat, I pull it to the other side of the puzzle spinner. If you use the spinner by itself, you can't easily reach the side of the puzzle not against the edge and you can't slide the puzzle across the spinner. The boxes are great for sorting puzzle pieces. I see that, as I write this review, the boxes are no longer available. (I bought mine a couple of years ago.) They are a fantastic idea. Maybe customers were put off by the price or did not realize how useful they are.The picture shows a puzzle in progress, on the mat, which is on the spinner, with unassembled pieces in the boxes.

Debated between this and one of the puzzle "boards" that would roll up. It's nice to have a firm board in case you want to move it from place to place. It does make it difficult to find a place to keep it if you have a partially completed puzzle that you aren't currently working on. Though when not in use, it should be easy to store behind a door or in a closet. It came with 2 heavy plastic bags and a cloth bag. These are nice if you've sorted your pieces by object, color or background. You can store the pieces you've sorted, but aren't working on in the bags and they are less likely to get lost. I was only working on the puzzles during our power outages and don't normally do a lot of puzzles. So after I've gone to the trouble of sorting out pieces it's nice not to have to just dump everything back in the box or leave them laying around until the next time I decide to work on a puzzle (and of course you can use any food storage bag for that purpose too). The material on the board keeps the pieces from sliding around. It should be plenty big enough for just about any puzzle that you do. Just remember it is a large board and some people may find it inconvenient to have laying around if the only place you have to work on a puzzle is your dinning table.

I wanted a portable puzzle building table and this is definitely that. I love to be able to sit and watch TV and worked puzzle at the same time. The surface is I felt like so it’s kind of hard to slide The pieces around but I figured it out. My only complaint in the board is not as stiff as I would prefer it to be. I feel like after how many uses it will become even more flexible. I do like that it is reversible though. For the price I paid I guess it is a good working puzzle service.

It’s okay for what it is. Not as sturdy as I had hoped (in that it still kind of bends/tilts when you move it) but seems to be nice quality/looks nice. My major issue is with the size- don’t pay attention to the puzzle piece number size the description says it can hold. That’s kind of irrelevant. The more important question (which is maybe obvious to most, but wasn’t to me) is the finished size of the puzzle - which will vary from puzzle to puzzle. For me, this mat was far too small for the 1000 piece puzzle I started with as the puzzle itself took up the entire area of the board, leaving no room as an outer workspace for other pieces. I found myself having to place the other pieces I had sorted off the mat which was not my intention (defeats the purpose of having this for me, as I wanted to be able to move the entire workspace when I needed the table for something else).