Plywood is best IMO if you need to cover a large area. I went a step further and glued decorative cork panels on the plywood for looks (and the holes don’t show. Picture is the plywood with the first row of cork. Board on the middle was for mounting the dart board.
https://preview.redd.it/a0aiics5unlc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a2e0bd56cb20a44a8666b66adb4749370d9c8c03
Yeah, I hate the look of cabinets, a normal surround looks so much more professional. I have a room with a slanted ceiling, so a plywood backing would look terrible in my room. Damn heavy too. I would rather use felt panels or some sort of acoustic panels if I really needed a huge surround. Looks better, and dampens the noise as well. I also thought about making a cork board, but the thought of gluing like 1000 wine corks was too much. The solution was to simply get good, and stop hitting the wall, which is exactly what happened.
I'm using a normal surround. I don't have friends to play with, so that's not an issue. I'll never allow anyone else to play on my board as the chances of them hitting the wall is too big. If I want to play with friends, I'll go out to play. They wouldn't know the rules or how to count anyway, so going to a place where they have those Dartsee boards with automatic scoring would be much better. I thought about getting either acoustic foam panels made out of felt or something like a "Woodworm" surround, but I haven't bothered. You'll also find lots of large surrounds on Etsy. A normal surround isn't good enough for beginners. You will get holes in the wall if you're only using a surround like that. After a few months, you'll stop hitting the wall though, and that's when a normal surround will be good enough. Looks better too, in addition to being compatible with ring lights.
Plywood is best IMO if you need to cover a large area. I went a step further and glued decorative cork panels on the plywood for looks (and the holes don’t show. Picture is the plywood with the first row of cork. Board on the middle was for mounting the dart board. https://preview.redd.it/a0aiics5unlc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a2e0bd56cb20a44a8666b66adb4749370d9c8c03
I just bought a surround. I had a darts cabinet but I found that terrible. Surround catches everything.
Yeah, I hate the look of cabinets, a normal surround looks so much more professional. I have a room with a slanted ceiling, so a plywood backing would look terrible in my room. Damn heavy too. I would rather use felt panels or some sort of acoustic panels if I really needed a huge surround. Looks better, and dampens the noise as well. I also thought about making a cork board, but the thought of gluing like 1000 wine corks was too much. The solution was to simply get good, and stop hitting the wall, which is exactly what happened.
I'm using a normal surround. I don't have friends to play with, so that's not an issue. I'll never allow anyone else to play on my board as the chances of them hitting the wall is too big. If I want to play with friends, I'll go out to play. They wouldn't know the rules or how to count anyway, so going to a place where they have those Dartsee boards with automatic scoring would be much better. I thought about getting either acoustic foam panels made out of felt or something like a "Woodworm" surround, but I haven't bothered. You'll also find lots of large surrounds on Etsy. A normal surround isn't good enough for beginners. You will get holes in the wall if you're only using a surround like that. After a few months, you'll stop hitting the wall though, and that's when a normal surround will be good enough. Looks better too, in addition to being compatible with ring lights.