DIY Your Own Stylish Checkers Game From Scrap Wood!
When our 'current new normal' way of life hit, I found myself gravitating towards downtime activities to help keep my mind busy and occupied in positive and fun ways.
So I decided to challenge myself to create a project that could provide hours of entertainment after the fact!
Grabbing a chunk of plywood, a few cedar strips, a closet dowel (I know!!!) and a couple of stencils to help with the design, I just can't believe how cute this turned out... and how well it works!
This is a perfect project to invite the entire family to make... and then to ultimately play!
Here's how I did it...
Rummaging through my wood stash, I came across a piece of plywood. Perfect! Nothing fancy needed here!
I cut it down to a perfect 20" x 20", then painted it in Fusion Mineral Paint's Raw Silk.
Now what to make the checkers pattern with.... let's try something cool with a Buffalo Check stencil! (from HERE)
How to create Checkers out of a Buffalo Check stencil
- Since Checkers is 8 squares x 8 squares, I marked off the centre of 4 squares horizontal and vertical on the stencil.
- Mark the centre of the board.
- Position the stencil at the middle marks and begin stenciling in black.
- Continue the pattern until your full checkers pattern is complete.
- Reposition stencil over top again by patching up the pattern, but this time, to fill in the empty squares. Continue until all the squares are filled in.
To watch a video of this process, click the blog post link below this post. It's actually very easy!
Didn't that Buffalo Check pattern work out slick?! So cool to see checkers in such a stylish way! Imagine traditional red and black... swoon!
A wooden closet dowel was cut into 24 slices to create the checkers! It worked fantastic!
12 checkers were left natural, and the other 12 stained in Fusion's Stain & Finishing Oil in Natural to help deepen the tone a little.
You could also paint them if desired. Imagine the colour possibilities!
Cedar strips were sanded, then stained to create the frame.
The frame was screwed onto the board, then stenciled with Shipping Crate Stamps stencil (from HERE) to achieve a pallet effect! Fun!!!
The checkers board turned out SO cool, and I mean, have you ever seen a cooler looking rustic game board before?!
This little rustic checkers game board is so fun to make and will provide hours of even more fun after the fact! That's a project worth making!
Ahem... Sky? Your move. The bird watching can wait...
Think you'll try your hand at making a checkerboard too? What's your fav board game to play?
Questions? Click HERE to read the full blog post instructions with video and stencil info!
Resources for this project:
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A great idea. I have scrape and I am going to give it a try
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Cool JoAnn! You'll love how easy the checkers are to make with a dowel! Grab one of a better quality if you can, the pieces turn out nicer!
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Love this, sooo cute!! Is the lock on on the game for decoration?