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How to Make a Veneered Chessboard

A chessboard is a traditional game board that you can easily make at home with a piece of wood and some veneer to make a shiny top coat. Designing a chessboard at home saves costs over purchasing a pre-made board at a toy store, where solid wood chessboards can sometimes be expensive. With a few basic tools and materials, even woodworking novices can design a classic-looking chessboard with a coat that gleams thanks to the veneer.

Things You'll Need

Wood board
Sand paper
Pencil
Yard stick
Paint brush
Wood stain
Veneer

Instructions

- 1
  Purchase a square piece of plywood from a building supply store. It can be any size you like, so long as it is a square. Two feet by two feet works well for this project.
- 2
  Smooth down the entire board with sand paper, removing any rough spots from the surface and smoothing down the edges to prevent splinters.
- 3
  Draw the checkerboard pattern onto the board using a pencil and a yard stick. Drawing vertical and horizontal lines that intersect to make squares. Make sure you end up with 64 squares.
- 4
  Darken every other square with a coat of wood stain to get the classic chessboard design. Let dry.
- 5
  Coat the entire board with a coat of clear veneer. Veneer is a glossy, polyurethane-based product that can be found at most building supply stores. Let dry before playing.

Chess & Checkers