Best Dartboard Cabinets: What Closing Doors Actually Buy You
Mount a dartboard cabinet so the centre of the bullseye sits 68 inches from the finished floor, measuring the bull position inside the assembled cabinet rather than the cabinet itself. Cabinets are worth buying for the doors closing, which turns a board into wall furniture in a shared room. They do far less for wall protection than a foam surround does.
A dartboard cabinet does one thing well and one thing badly, and being clear about which is which saves money. The thing it does well is close. In a living room, a dining room or a shared basement, doors that shut are frequently the difference between the board going up and the board staying in the box. The thing it does badly is protect the wall, which a foam surround does far better for a third of the price.
Whatever you buy, the one thing that is never in the box is a throw line marker, and it is the one thing you cannot play properly without. Add a peel-and-stick oche for twelve dollars or a laser line for a room where tape looks wrong. The measurements are in the layout calculator.
Cabinets and cabinet sets
Amazon Basics Regulation Dartboard Cabinet Set
Cabinet, regulation bristle board, six darts and a scoreboard in one box at the lowest price a complete set is worth buying at. The cabinet is thin and the darts are brass rather than tungsten, which are exactly the two places a cheap set economises and the two easiest things to upgrade later.
- Includes
- Board, darts, scoreboard
- Board
- Bristle
Best for: A first setup where the whole point is to be throwing this weekend.
Accudart Armada Dartboard Cabinet Set
A better cabinet than the price suggests, with doors that sit flush and a dry erase surface inside them that is actually usable. Everything about a cabinet set is really about whether the doors close properly, because that is the feature you are paying for.
- Includes
- Board, darts, scoring
- Doors
- Close flush
Best for: A spare room that is also something else on weekdays.
Accudart Match Pro Dartboard Cabinet Set
Cabinet, bristle board, two sets of darts and a scoreboard, with a heavier cabinet than the budget sets and a board worth keeping. The two dart sets matter more than they sound: it means two people can play the first evening without anyone sharing.
- Includes
- Board, 2 dart sets
- Board
- Bristle
Best for: The default cabinet set for a household that will play regularly.
Viper Hudson Solid Wood Dartboard Cabinet
A solid wood cabinet sold without a board, which is the right way to buy if you already know you want a staple-free sisal board rather than whatever a set includes. In a finished room the wood makes the difference between a game and a piece of wall furniture.
- Material
- Solid wood
- Board
- Not included
Best for: A finished basement or living room, paired with a board you chose.
GSE Wall Cue Rack and Dartboard Cabinet
A wall unit that stores eight cues and houses a dartboard behind doors. In a pool room this is the highest-value square foot available, because the wall behind a pool table is dead space and this turns it into cue storage plus a second game at once.
- Cues
- 8
- Board
- Cabinet included
Best for: A room that already has a pool table in it.
PAETAE Electronic Dartboard Cabinet Set
Electronic scoring inside a wooden cabinet, which solves the one real aesthetic objection to electronic boards. If the household wants automatic scoring but the room is a living room, this is the version that gets approved.
- Type
- Electronic
- Cabinet
- Wooden
Best for: A family room where the board has to look like furniture.
Prices move constantly, so confirm before you order. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Where a table is sold only through a manufacturer's own dealer network we say so on the card, and the button searches comparable tables you can order today rather than that exact model.
Mounting a cabinet correctly
The number that matters is the bull height, not the cabinet height, and the two are not the same thing because the board is mounted at a fixed point inside the box which is rarely its centre.
- Assemble the board into the cabinet first, off the wall, on the floor.
- Measure from the bottom edge of the cabinet to the centre of the bull. Call that figure X.
- Mark 68 inches up the wall from the finished floor. Finished floor means on top of whatever flooring will actually be there. If carpet is going down next month, account for it now.
- Subtract X from 68 to find where the bottom of the cabinet goes, then mark the fixing points from there.
- Fix into studs, not into drywall anchors alone. A cabinet with a board and two doors is heavier than it looks, and it takes a small impact several hundred times an evening.
- Check the diagonal. From the centre of the bull to the back of the oche should read 9 ft 7.375 in for steel tip. If the horizontal and the height are right and the diagonal is wrong, the floor is not level or the wall is not plumb, and the diagonal is the one to trust.
Check the door swing before choosing the wall. Open doors typically span around three feet in total, and a cabinet mounted next to a door frame, a corner or a bookcase will not open fully. That defeats the scoring surface inside the doors, which is most of what you bought the cabinet for.
What a cabinet protects, and what it does not
| Miss | Cabinet with open doors | Foam surround |
|---|---|---|
| Wide left or right, close to the board | Caught by the door | Caught by the foam |
| Wide left or right, well past the door | Hits the wall | Hits the wall |
| High over the board | Hits the wall | Caught by the foam |
| Low under the board | Hits the wall | Caught by the foam |
| Bounce-out off a wire | Lands on the floor | Lands on the floor |
| Damage to the protection itself | The doors get marked | Foam self-heals |
| Typical price | $70 to $240 | $50 to $80 |
The honest reading of that table: if wall protection is the goal, buy a foam surround or a Wall Defender instead, and skip the cabinet entirely. If concealment is the goal, buy the cabinet and accept that the doors will get marked. If both matter, a cabinet in the closed position with a surround inside it is a combination some cabinets accommodate and many do not, so check the internal depth. Full options in the surround roundup.
Buying a cabinet without a board
Cabinet sets are convenient and the board inside them is almost always the compromise. If you already know you want a staple-free sisal board , buying a bare cabinet such as the Viper Hudson and pairing it with the board you chose costs about the same as a mid-range set and gets you a much better board.
Two compatibility checks. Regulation bristle boards are all 17.75 inches in outside diameter, so the board will fit any cabinet built for one. What varies is the internal depth, since a board plus its mounting hardware needs clearance behind it for the doors to close, and the mounting bracket design, which is not universal. Both are easy to verify from the listing and annoying to discover afterwards.
The three things nobody includes
- A throw line. Twelve dollars, and non-negotiable. A peel-and-stick oche or a Winmau adhesive line .
- Decent darts. The brass darts in a cabinet set are fatter than a tungsten dart of the same weight, so three of them physically will not fit in a treble bed that would take three slim ones. Tungsten at 24 g is thirty eight dollars and is the best upgrade in darts.
- Light on the board. A ceiling light behind the thrower puts a body shadow on the target. A ring light around the board removes it.
- Somewhere for the darts to live. A wall caddy at nineteen dollars, or the inside of the cabinet doors if it has holders.
For the board itself see the dartboard roundup, for darts see the dart roundup, and for a complete room built around darts see the starter buildout.
Deciding on a specific model? We review the Accudart Match Pro dartboard cabinet set review in full.
Frequently asked questions
What height should a dartboard cabinet be mounted at?
Mount the cabinet so that the centre of the bullseye ends up 68 inches from the finished floor, which is 5 ft 8 in. That means measuring where the bull will sit inside the assembled cabinet rather than measuring the cabinet itself, because the board is mounted at a fixed point inside the box and the box is not centred on it. Hold the cabinet against the wall with the board in place and mark the bull position before you drill anything.
Do dartboard cabinets protect the wall?
Partly, and less than people expect. The open doors catch some wide darts on either side of the board, which is genuinely useful, but they do nothing for darts that go high or low, and the doors themselves get damaged instead of the wall. If wall protection is the actual goal, a foam surround around the board does far more for less money. Buy the cabinet for the doors closing, not for the doors catching.
Is a dartboard cabinet worth it?
In a room that is not only a game room, yes, and it is often the difference between the board going up and the board staying in a box. Closed doors turn a dartboard into a wall cupboard, which is what makes it acceptable in a living room, a dining room or a shared basement. In a dedicated game room with a wall to spare, a bare board with a surround is cheaper, better protected and easier to light.
Can I put any dartboard in any cabinet?
Nearly. Regulation bristle boards are all the same 17.75 inch outside diameter, so any regulation board fits any cabinet built for one. Two things to check: whether the cabinet has the depth for the board plus the mounting hardware behind it, and whether the supplied mounting bracket matches the board you are fitting, since bracket designs vary and a mismatch is a hardware store trip rather than a return.
How much room does a dartboard cabinet need?
The same as any board, which is a lane of about 9 ft 9 in long by 5 ft wide, plus the swing of the doors themselves. Doors typically open to a combined width of roughly three feet, so allow for that when choosing a wall: a cabinet next to a door frame or a corner may not open fully, which defeats the point of having a scoreboard inside it.
What comes in a dartboard cabinet set?
Usually a cabinet, a bristle board, two or three sets of steel tip darts, a mounting kit and either a chalk or dry erase scoring surface inside the doors. What is almost never included is a throw line marker, which is the one thing you genuinely cannot play properly without. Budget ten to twenty dollars for a peel-and-stick oche or a laser line on top of any cabinet set.
Measuring your own room before anything is delivered? The Game Room Layout Planner is the paid version of these pages: 8 printable worksheets you fill in with your own numbers, plus the full PDF, $29.
How we work: we compare published manufacturer dimensions, the governing playing standards for each game, and reviews from owners who live with the equipment. We do not test games in person, and we say so on every page. Clearance figures here are researched guidance for planning a room, not professional advice: measure your own space, and have a slate table delivered, assembled and levelled by an installer rather than moving it yourself.