Our St. George Island vacation rental has a growing grill and hangout area in the backyard by the pool. It started with a park style charcoal grill which holds up to the salty air, humidity and winds of SGI. We then added a gas grill which we know won’t last as long by the gulf, but it lets our vacationing guests hit the easy button when they want to. Firing up a gas grill takes just seconds and pretty soon you have your steaks or fresh caught fish sizzling away.

I added oyster shells that I collected on a few beach walks around the base of the cooking area to discourage grass and weeds from growing and to make the area look beachy. I mean, you can see the gulf from the grill area… but still.

My husband Steven is the official grill master in our home. He wanted a place to lay his trays of food before the grills were ready. And I wanted a place to eat what he cooked up – outside. It seemed wrong to carry these gorgeous steaks back into the house on some of the most beautiful February and March evenings that St. George is famous for. Obviously this was going to be a problem for our vacationers as well so we bought a picnic table. We found a great, heavy duty table at the local building supply in Eastpoint.

Easy. Done. Right?

Nooooo.

First, our contractor saw the picnic table and said it needed a coat of stain to protect it from the St. George Island weather. “If you want the picnic table to hold up to the gulf breezes, the salty air, the rain, and the sun, you have to protect it.”

Within a day or two, the table was lightly sanded to knock off some rough bits, and then coated with a clear weatherproofing deck stain. It had a nice sheen and when it rained the next day, the water beaded up. Success!

And then I saw it, a blank canvas. An opportunity to add fun and color to the yard. I looked up some ideas for painting the picnic table on Pinterest and we initially considered the idea of painting a runner on the picnic table. But Steven made a good point. It shouldn’t just look fun, it should BE fun.  So the idea of painting game boards on the picnic table was born.

Paint game boards on picnic table

If you’re going to paint game boards on a picnic table consider your audience and plan to get a bit of an education (especially if you’re in Florida). Who’s going to play? In our case, our home is a St. George Island rental (you can book it on Cape & Coast Premier Properties). This means we share our beach house with families and friend groups from all over, and of all ages. So we chose to paint a chess board (which has grown recently in popularity thanks to the fantastic miniseries The Queen’s Gambit) for those who like to settle in for a serious game of skill. Plus, a chess board doubles as a checkers board. Two games in one board! Checkers is a great quick-moving game for all ages. We also chose a tic tac toe board for kids, and those of us that want a quick game while we wait for the shrimp on the barbie.

“Life is more fun if you play games.” ~ Roald Dahl

How to paint a chessboard on picnic table

Like so many quick and easy ideas, this one was neither quick, nor was it easy. If you plan to paint a chess board or game board on your picnic table plan on a bit of tedious, precision measuring, taping, painting and touching up. Also, don’t start by weatherproofing the picnic table like I did!

You’ll need these supplies to paint your chessboard, checker board, or tic tac toe game:

• Ruler
• Pencil
• Painters Tape – 2”
• Paint – at least 2 contrasting colors
• 4″ Paint Brush
• 2″ Foam Brush
• Utility knife or craft knife
• Wet paper towels and cotton swabs for mistakes and touchups
• Polyurethane spray
• Chess pieces (I got these plastic chess sets on amazon)
• Checkers / Tic Tac Toe pieces (I painted shells I collected on SGI)

First, you DO want to weatherproof your picnic table, but I recommend you plan your game board layout first. We decided to keep our board within the center 3 boards. If you do this, you’ll weather proof the rest of your picnic table but not the boards you’ll be painting.  Why? Because most paints will not adhere well to the stained surface.

Second, measure, plan and tape. This will take time and patience because you have to visualize the negative space and your tape is covering part of this space. If you’re a perfectionist, allow even more time.

• TIP: Most searches for How to Paint a Chessboard on a Table return with DIY pictures of chessboards that are wrong! If you have any serious players in your family, you’ll be bummed if you mess this up… The 1st square on the players left is always black. Got it? The rook to the far left (sometimes called the castle, tower, marquess or rector) is always sitting on black when you set up the board to play. This means whatever colors you’re using to paint your picnic table, you’ll want to plan for the first square to be the darker color so that you get your checkerboard pattern right.

My process was this:

1. Coat the picnic table with a clear weatherproofing stain, skipping the areas where the gameboards will be
2. Stain the center 3 boards with your contrast color paint like arborcoat pigmented stain – I used blue
3. Measure and tape off the borders and paint with the foam brush – I used white paint
4. Let the paint dry and then tape off the chessboard/checker board, and the Tic Tac Toe game.
   • You’ll tape out the chessboard by creating a crisscross pattern with the 2″ tape, then you’ll use your craft knife to cut out every other square on the diagonal. I’m sorry, but there is no easier way. 🙂
5. Press tape edges down firmly
6. Paint by dabbing with the foam brush (so it doesn’t get under your tape)
7. Let dry and then carefully remove the tape
8. If you’re a perfectionist, get after some of the rough edges with the qtip cotton swab dipped in the appropriate color paint
9. Let it dry out and then spray with a polyurethane spray.

I coated mine with 3 coats of the clear poly spray because I noticed the edges of the game boards were raised. This will chip overtime with the sliding of game pieces and dinner plates. My theory is the clear coat will fill in some of the gaps to smooth those edges, while also providing a weather barrier.

Like I said, it’s all purely theory.  We’ll see what the first summer of vacationers and the St. George Island sun does to my artwork. Honestly, I think a little authentic wear will add to the beachy vibe.

I had some of the blue paint left, and it was a gorgeous day, so I taped off the stripes on the end and painted that too.

On one of my shelling trips I collected a bunch of white cockle shells and spray painted them for the checkers and tic-tac-toe pieces. It’s a beachy game piece idea, but if your picnic table is in the mountains you might choose rocks or river stones.

The picnic table sits under a palm tree between the grills and the pool, making it a really nice area to hangout.

We plan to build a cabana by the pool this fall. Who knows, maybe that project will be easy… or maybe another blank canvas. (Don’t tell Steven) 😉