Pro Tips and FAQs

Pro Tips:

-Do yourself a favor and use the chessboard jig because it's insanely difficult to tape out perfect grids without assistance and I did waste four hours trying to tape it out myself before I realized I'd need to make a proper jig :/

-When painting the chess pieces, it's good to get some extra helping hands because there are a lot of pieces (read: exploit your friends for free labor).

FAQs:

Q: What are the dimensions of the board?

A: It is a 8x8 grid with 13" tiles. The chessboard has a border of 9.5". The complete size is a 10' 3" square.

Q: What are the dimensions of the pieces?

A: All pieces have a 9" square base and range in height from 20" to 38".

Q: What paint did you use?

A: All the paint was from Sherwin Williams.

For the pieces it was flat interior paint with the codes P360-S Citrus Peel, 690-S Goldfinch, and M290-1Thickened Cream.

For the concrete it was satin floor paint with the codes P360-S Citrus Peel, P260-6 Smiley Face, and M290-1 Thickened Cream.

Optional: I also did 2 topcoat layers of Minwax, a clear water-based polyacrylic with a matte finish in order to seal & protect the pieces.

Q: How many coats of paint did you use on the the pieces?

A: 3 coats of the white and 2 coats of the green were needed and 2 coats of each of the accent colors. May require touchups on the accent colors depending on accuracy (we needed a lot of touch ups).

Q: What kind of wood did you use?

A: 4'x8' sheets of 1/2" thick plywood

Q: How did you make the pearls on the queen pieces?

A: The pearls are CNCd recesses filled with epoxy resin mixed with pearlized mica pigment before curing (both of those things can be found in hobby stores). Optional, could just paint white but this really helps emphasize the pearl symbolism.