DIY Checkers

Today I’m sharing one of our favorite summer games. There’s nothing like hanging out on the porch and playing a nice game of checkers. This DIY Checkers game is so easy to make and will become a family favorite activity from young to old. You can customize it with any colors you like or just stick with the standard colors.

Here are the supplies you’ll need:

• Wood square base (mine was 13.5″x13.5″)
• Paint for checkerboard (I used a white wash for the base, and then chalkboard paint)
• Checker pieces- You can use anything. I used stars but you could use coins, candy, really anything!
• Painters tape: Choose the size you want your squares to be (I used .94″ frog tape so that was the size of my squares)

 
First off, I am not a builder extraordinaire…there may be a better way to go about this but with my limited knowledge I am the type of person who gets an idea and has to see it through. So please bear with me and these longwinded instructions!

Now let’s go about making that checkerboard. Before you get started,  you’ll need to determine what size of checkerboard you want, including the edges. I wanted a wide border around the board to be covered in chalk paint for scoring with chalk. 🙂 The typical checkboard has 64 squares, so you’ll want to measure it out to be rows of 8 squares by 8 squares.

1. First, you’ll select you board, cut it to determined size, and sand it down. Next you’ll want to paint your board one of the colors of your squares. I wanted a whitewash so I painted that on and let it dry for a day to make sure the paint wouldn’t peel it up or have trouble adhering.
2. Now you’ll start taping off your squares. Remember, you want it to be 8 squares x 8 squares. To start, you can find the middle of your board and start placing your tape.
3. Keep adding the tape both horizontally and vertically. I used a scrap of tape at the top and bottoms on each side of the placed tape as a size guide to know where to place my next strip. Once you have all your “square” areas taped off you’ll start removing some of the tape.
4. To make sure you get those crisp squares, you’ll want to use an exacto knife to gently remove sections of tape to make the squares in the checkboard pattern.
5. Gently peel up cut squares. (I labeled my tape squares B for black and W for white so I would know which pieces to remove. (I ended up doing this backwards but it still worked)
6. Next, you’ll add any additional tape you need to keep your edges crisp while painting.
7. Now you’re ready to paint. Gently dab the paint in the open squares with a minimum of paint to prevent bleeding.
8. You may need 2 coats, when the last coat is applied you can remove the tape. Let the paint dry completely.
9. Now you can tape off your board and paint your edges. I also let that dry and then taped off an inner border that I painted with gold paint, but that is completely optional! Now your checkerboard is ready to go!

This chalk paint border is so fun! It is the perfect place to keep score.
 

This was originally posted on I Heart Naptime 6/7/14