Mike Myers is doing it. So

are Kathy Najimy, Hank Azaria and Julia Roberts.

Palm Beach designer Jack Fhillips

calls it the "new version of high tea."

And trend forecaster Michelle

Lamb sees it as a replacement for gourmet clubs.

Welcome to the games people

play in the post-Sept. 11 world of the new nesting. Everyone from stars

to plain folks are rediscovering the pleasures of interacting with friends

while playing board games like Monopoly, Parcheesi and Trivial Pursuit.

They're also finding new interest in card games, mah-jongg and backgammon.

Not only have newspapers and

magazines taken notice of the phenomenon, so have designers and manufacturers.

The game room is morphing into the new family room. And the game table

is becoming the hot home furnishing du jour.

Elegant versions of game tables

are showing up in upscale catalogs like Gumps by Mail and Horchow, often

harbingers of new trends. Game tables also were ubiquitous at the International

Home Furnishings Market in High Point, N.C. Almost every showroom had

a game table or game-related accents, according to Eryn McGary, assistant

editor of the trade magazine Accessory Merchandising.

"I think it is a sort

of post-9/11 phenomenon. All the reports say that Americans are staying

at home more, entertaining at home more and looking for ways to entertain

at home," she said. "You can't spend 24 hours a day looking

at television."

Michelle Lamb, trend guru and

publisher of The Trend Curve newsletter, says the game table's popularity

can be attributed to a few factors - nesting, the aging of Baby Boomers

and the increased size of houses.

"Maybe the gourmet clubs

were too much of a mess to clean up," she said, laughing. "There

is also a trend toward less-strenuous leisure activities. Baby Boomers

went from tennis to golf to chess. People are staying home in droves,

and even children are doing more sedentary activities. I view game tables

as home theater's cousin. They are both about being entertained while

you sit."

Nowhere is this new interest

in gaming more evident than in designer show houses and model homes.

Palm Beach, Fla., designer

Jennifer Garrigues, asked to do a playroom for the Red Cross Designers'

Showhouse, did a game room instead. The room had no computer and no telephone.

The focus was on crossword puzzles, board games, cards, chess and backgammon.

"This is the kind of place

to go and have some peace and quiet," Garrigues said. "My whole

point was not to have a television so that people could interact with

each other, play games with each other, talk to each other, read a book

or listen to music.

"If you put a television

in a room, people turn it on and that's it. The flow of conversation

stops. This is a place to get away from the batter of the news. If they

want to play computer games, they can do it someplace else in the house."

Take a tour of model homes

and game tables are everywhere. Designers are using game tables to fill

awkward spaces on second-floor landings, or they are dedicating whole

rooms to everything from billiards to card playing.

"People are spending more

time at home and looking for more options," said Michelle Resch,

owner of The Interiors Group in Boca Raton, who did the interior design

for Minto's Olympia model home in Wellington, Fla. "Many of

these homes have so many rooms and people are looking for ways to use

them. It's a way for a family to have fun and share more time together

at home."

Post-Sept. 11 surveys are backing

up those feelings. Jackie Hirshhault, vice president of the American Furniture

Manufacturers Association, says a recent survey concluded that consumers

view the world outside their homes as more frightening than inviting.

The study, which involved focus groups and at-home interviews with consumers,

was done for AFMA by the Michael Cohen Group of New York.

"We found that home is

more important than ever before," Hirshhault said. "The only

place that people actually feel at home is at home. It reconfirms our

impression that people were spending more time at home."

Game tables started popping

up about a year ago at the furniture market, she says, noting that they

fit in perfectly with the idea of people spending more time at home.

The tables can be found in

a variety of prices, from Chris Casson Madden's Monte Carlo table

for Bassett ($459 retail) to Burton-Ching's George III-style octagon-shaped

mahogany game table with green or brown leather inserts ($7,950).

Madden's game table, introduced

at the October 2002 market, is made of selected hardwoods. It has two

drawers and a painted game board and cards on top. It comes with a folding

side chair ($229) with hand-painted detail in the top chair rail.

Fhillips, who is known for

creating the Palm Beach old-money look, describes the Burton-Ching tables

as the "Aston Martin of game tables." Burton-Ching, a San Francisco

company with a reputation for creating reproductions with the same techniques

as the originals, uses a hand-rubbed finish designed to look like the

patina had aged naturally for 100 years.

"People come in looking

for these game tables," said Bruce Chavannes, showroom manager for

Southard Associates in the Design Center of the Americas in Dania Beach,

Fla. "Burton-Ching craftsmen are really exceptional. They are purists,

making the furniture in mahogany or walnut, not veneers. People who know

take out the drawers and see they are done with dovetail joints and the

bottoms of the drawers are made with good wood, not plywood."

Shoppers can find game tables

with reversible chess/backgammon boards or with plain tops and built-in

coasters. Some will fold up to the size of a sofa table to save space

in small condos.

"Games tables are big,"

Fhillips said. "My Lord, I never thought I'd live to see the

day when mah-jongg became a daily word. It is amazing. Ten years ago,

I never would have dreamed of people saying they had to have a game table

in the living room."

Let the games begin.

To find these game tables:

- Gumps by Mail -

call 800-284-8677 or visit gumps.com.

- Horchow - call

800-456-7000 or visit horchow.com.

- Burton-Ching's

George III table - visit burtonching.com.

- Alturas Table -

visit designwestinc.com.

- Butler's Heritage

Collection - call 800-799-2857 or visit butlerspecialty.net.

- Chris Madden's

Monte Carlo table - visit bassettfurniture.com.

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