Custom tables make beer pong more than a game for college students

For some Central Michigan University students, beer pong is not just a drinking game played on a table.

It is a way to display their work of art.

For Andy Miller and Dan Nemets, their beer pong table is something simple. It features Miller High Life’s

“Girl in the Moon” image made completely out of a recycled table, black spray paint, bottle caps and epoxy.

“We tried to stay traditional,” said Nemets, a junior from Saugatuck. “It’s just caps and epoxy. It’s the fire and brimstone of the beer pong culture.”

Their 3-by-8 foot table cost more than $200 to make, not counting the money collectively spent on beer for the bottle caps.

“The caps, we saved for over two years,” said Miller, a junior from Utica. “Between us and some friends, we’ve collected over 5,000 caps. It took me six weeks to lay down all the caps and get it finished. The epoxy alone took four days to dry.”

Miller’s inspiration for the table came from antique Miller High Life memorabilia passed down to him from his grandfather.

“He got stuff from distributors that consumers shouldn’t have,” Miller said. “Granted, Miller is my name, but it’s also a family tradition. I’m happy to say I now have a personal piece to contribute.”

The dark side of the moon

Chosun Holliday decided to go with a musical theme for his table.

The Birmingham sophomore’s table features Pink Floyd’s 1973 “Dark Side of the Moon” album cover.

The triangles on each side of the table are used to perfectly outline a rack of cups.

“It started out as a maroon door we found in my buddy’s basement,” Holliday said. “We just painted it black and traced the triangles and rainbows. We actually colored in the rainbows with crayons.”

Holliday said his housemates’ love for Pink Floyd was his inspiration for the sharp and simple table.

“It took three or four days to make,” he said. “When we first painted it, we left it outside to dry and it started to rain, so we had to pull it in real fast to make sure it didn’t get ruined. It was a close call.”

A ’70s experience

Tom Alty’s psychedelic table, featuring the number 908 glowing in the middle and yellow dots for cup placement at both ends, represents the address where he resides.

“The fluorescent paint glows well under the black light, so we bought a whole bunch of spray paint and went wild,” the Clarkston junior said. “We did the walls and everything. I like our table because it has personal touch and the fact that anyone can write on it makes it pretty cool.”

CMU pride

Both of Nikki Van’s beer pong tables show his school spirit and pay tribute to Central Michigan University pride.

“I came up with my idea for the smaller table because I wanted one to be travel size,” the Portage junior said of his foldable table. “Each table took about eight hours to make and nothing was stenciled or anything. I did everything by hand. I just get things done quickly.”

Pimp my table

Evan Lyons and Kevin Thinnes table features lighted Smirnoff Vodka bottles on both sides with a television in the middle. Between the television and the Smirnoff bottles, their table has been an investment of thousands of dollars.

“We got the idea for the table from a picture we saw online,” said Thinnes, a Novi sophomore. “The table took about a month to put together after we got all the vodka bottles.”