Picture Puzzle Board size?

I know this isn't the typical type post here, but I figure you guys might kno. I want to make a picture puzzle board for my parents and I was trying to think of how big to make it.

It needs to be big enough for at least a 1000 pc puzzle but it also needs to be big enough for the pieces too. Just throwing out numbers, I was thinking a 3' x 4' piece.

Thanks

My parents have one of these. It's very very handy, especially for people who take a long time to finish a puzzle (such that they need to have dinner guests in the meantime!).

I have two recommendations:

- Don't plan to put the pieces on the main board. It makes it too big, and means you have to reach all the way across the table. It's much nicer to have the main board for the puzzle itself and then in addition two small boards (about the size of a puzzle box) for pieces. You can pick them up so they're convenient to whatever part of the puzzle you're currently working on, and stack them on top for reduced space usage when needed. (Maybe make three even if it's not too much extra work, just in case they ever want more room.)

- Look at some actual jigsaw puzzles to find out the size. I looked around on the web briefly, and it seems like the absolute minimum for the puzzle itself would be 28' x 20' for 1000 piece, 36' x 24' for 1500 piece, and 39' x 30' for 2000 piece. Then you want to allow some border, as half-completed puzzles tend to be larger than their final size.

I'd say your proposed size of 48' x 36' is certainly sufficent, and perhaps overlarge. I don't know if you're planning to make it fold (see below), but if so it'd be nice for the 1000-piece puzzles to fit (albeit barely) on one half. So I think I would propose 44' x 32' for the main board.

And I'd make the small boards just slightly smaller than a quarter of the main board size, so perhaps 21' x 15' would be good.

As for the folding thing

Four times the area of the completed puzzle is often cited as sufficient working space.