These Luxury Games Look Better Than You Play

Maybe there’s a moment in adulthood when you look at a board game and realise you don’t actually want to play it; you just want it to look good on your coffee table. (Or maybe play it if you have so much money that it doesn’t matter what pieces you lose or destroy, you do you man.)

But it’s hard to let go of the games we grew up with, the ones still stacked away in our cupboards in soggy card boxes and pieces missing that we refuse to throw away.

These are the complete opposite.

They’re made of solid wood instead of splintery planks, leather instead of peeling laminate. These are game pieces that belong in a home where someone cares about how they look and feel and how they age. Luxury games sit in that strange Venn diagram between social ritual, interior décor, and subtle flex: you buy them not because you needed a nicer Scrabble set, but because it’s the most civilised way to say, hey I have money and taste.

So, let’s get into it. The games we love (and the ones we want).

Geoffrey Parker Custom Scrabble Set

Scrabble is usually the domain of families who passive-aggressively deploy “QUIZZIFY” on triple word for emotional warfare. Geoffrey Parker takes that energy and gives it a luxury-world upgrade. This thing is hand-bound in calf leather, sits on a built-in turntable, and uses a chrome-grid so your tiles don’t slide around.

The letters—a leather-on-leather “sandwich”—are where the craftsmanship really lands. You feel the density, the weight. If you know, you know. And if you don’t… well, you’ll still enjoy the spin of that Lazy Susan.

Dolce & Gabbana Domino Box Set

Dominoes is traditionally a no-nonsense game—straightforward, tactile, a little rowdy. Dolce & Gabbana, however, have never met a surface they didn’t want to elaborate. The result? A domino set dripping in Carretto Siciliano energy: folkloric motifs, archival scarf prints, colours that look like they escaped a vintage Sicilian parade. The tiles are plexiglass (good call: durable, glossy, travel-proof) and the graphics are peak D&G—bold, decorative, unapologetically extra. Insight-wise, this is luxury branding at its most identifiable: take something universal, reinterpret it through cultural nostalgia, give it personality.

Bottega Veneta Jenga Set

Jenga is inherently chaotic—blocks tumbling, people yelling, someone bumping the table. Bottega Veneta clearly looked at that and said: “What if we made this unreasonably elegant with our iconic Intrecciato weave?” The tower is built from Italian walnut and stabilised coloured wood pieces, engraved with Bottega’s logos. The case—naturally—is Intrecciato calf leather, because Bottega will never miss an opportunity to remind you they invented this. The whole thing feels far more architectural than recreational. It’s beautifully crafted, absolutely unnecessary, and deeply satisfying to handle.

Ralph Lauren Sutton Backgammon Gift Set

Ralph Lauren has always excelled at “heritage but make it chic,” and this backgammon set nails that aesthetic. Walnut warmth meets carbon-fibre embossed leather—essentially the brand’s dual identity in object form. The case doubles as the board, the hardware is understated, and the whole thing feels like it belongs on a mahogany yacht.

Dolce & Gabbana Tombola Set

Tombola isn’t as globally recognisable as dominoes, but in India, it’s household staple guys, come on. D&G taps into that nostalgia again, this time pushing the artistry even further: a cotton game board, artist-illustrated cards, patterned pouches for tokens, you know, the whole deal.

It’s maximalist, but it’s meaningful maximalism.

Ralph Lauren Sutton Carbon Tic-Tac-Toe

Tic-tac-toe is the most basic of all games—you play it in dust, on tissue paper, on a restaurant placemat while waiting for fries. Which is why the Ralph Lauren carbon-fibre-and-walnut version is low-key hilarious in the best way. Taking a game this simple and giving it the industrial-luxury treatment is the kind of design decision that borders on performance art.

The pieces are polished nickel, the grid is handsome enough to be a desk accessory, and the whole thing works.

Hermès Casaque Mosaique Poker Box

This isn’t a game; this is basically an heirloom. Hermès uses wood marquetry on the lid—four types of wood intricately fitted to a tenth of a millimetre (I know right?)

Inside, you’ll find velvet-lined trays, 300 poker chips, a full-leather dealer chip, Hermès-designed playing cards… it’s a masterclass in design. The drama is all in the technique.

Hermès Macao Mahjong

Mahjong is a ritualistic game—slow, deliberate, full of tiny movements. Hermès honours that with natural mahogany tiles, cassia wood engraving, ebony dice with maple inlay, and a leather-clad lid.