Whew…I’ve been busy!

Between taking the kids to Universal in Orlando for Spring Break and trying to finish up decorations for the Backyard BBQ in honor of my step-son getting married (there will be lots more on that next week!)…I managed to squeeze in some time finishing up my game table.

Remember back several months ago when I bought the adorable little coffee table for a mere $8.00.

You can read all about that here.

Well…it looked like this:

And yes that is sticker reside on the top.

Just yuck.

Absolutely terrible.

Obviously I started out by scrubbing the table clean.

I had some left over chalk paint that was already mixed up from a previous project.

Well…here’s where THAT paint went.

Grrrrrrr….what a mess!

So I mixed up some more using Bistro White by Behr.

I turned the table upside down and painted the legs and the sides.

Let me just give a few words of beauty advice right here.

Put your hair in a ponytail!

Why you ask?

Well…just let me show you.

Do you see that?

How about a close up?

Geezh Louise. I’m beginning to think this project is doomed from the get go.

Anyway…

So now I had to scrape that sticky sticker stuff off.

That went well…sortof.

Nothing more than a pain in the butt.

I distressed the areas I had painted white and then gave the center piece several coats of chalkboard paint letting each coat dry in between.

After the first coat you can still see where some of the sticky residue was.

It’s okay though.

By the third coat you couldn’t even see it anymore!

Yay!

Okay. So I let this dry for a few days while I thought about the math equations for each of my game boards.

I hate math.

Seriously.

Hate it.

My brain was hurting and my head was spinning.

I finally decided that I would just lay out my game pieces on the table and draw some lines.

So that’s what I did.

I taped off a 1 inch border around the sides and found the center and taped it off.

Then I laid out my game pieces.

Can you see where I’m going with this?

I sure hope so because there’s no math equations involved.

I used a level and yardstick and then drew out my tic tac toe board.

While that was drying I used my math skills painter’s tape and taped me off a checker board.

Now this is serious math skills here people.

You need 8 squares across and 8 squares down.

Easy right.

Tape your squares off and dab whatever color paint you want to use.

Remember…alternate colors.

I went with a black and white pattern so my squares were painted with white acrylic paint.

Let that dry and then remove your tape.

Look closely at your pattern then tape over the white squares that you just painted so that you can finish up the pattern.

Let that dry, remove your tape and admire you awesome math and taping skills.

Don’t worry about your pencil border either…you’ll be painting over that later.

Now…you need game pieces.

Go get some rocks. You heard me. Go. I’ll wait.

Once you’ve gathered your rocks prime them first that way the paint has something to stick too.

Rocks are slicky and smooth.

At least mine were.

Once your primer has dried paint them anyway you like.

I went with ladybugs…

and bees…

Cute…right?

After your critters game pieces have dried spray them polyacrylic to keep the paint from chipping.

Go ahead and paint your border on your checkerboard too.

Then spray your entire table, including the top, with polyacrylic.

I added two cup hooks in the middle underneath the table to hang white buckets on.

This will keep all the game pieces in one place.

So there you have it.

An easy way to get the kids (or adults) to put down the candy crush and go a little old school.

Have a family game night.

Go ahead.

It’ll be fun.

Enjoy!

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