How to Paint a DIY Checkerboard Coffee Table

DIY Checkerboard Coffee Table - and a "how-to" paint it.

This is a repost of a cute make-over that I wanted to share again, now that people are actually reading my blog!

The other night on the way home I stopped in at my now FAVORITE thrift shop - (this place will wash your car for you in the parking lot while you shop for $5!!!!) and picked up a little square coffee table VERY similar to this:

 

 

The one that I bought had slightly thinner legs.

In my UBER excitement to CREATE - I forgot to take the 'before picture' - so I'm cheating with this picture.  

I started by sanding it and painting two coats of my "homemade" chalk paint on it.  I used a sample "OOPS" pot of dark gray paint that I got at Home Depot for .50 (thanks to my son for talking me into buying all the OOPS paint!) and added my Plaster of Paris and water to it. 

 

Then I measured and taped off my board.  This is the part that I was seriously overthinking...the math equations were flying around my head til it hurt... In the end, I marked the middle and measured 1"out from there on each side and taped.  Then, I continued to tape every 2" inches - as I wanted 2" squares... 

 

I then used a foam brush to dab on a light gray in my checkerboard pattern.  When the paint dried, I had to tape over the light gray spaces I just painted to get the criss cross pattern and repeated.

 

It's drying right now.  I'm going to try and add my border tonight.  I'll distress the table and wax it and finish the top of with a polyacrylic seal so it's durable. 

Here is the final outcome....

Complete with wooden checker pieces I found at Goodwill for $1. 

What do you think?

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