Everyone loves a good Ikea hack and with the Lack side table coming in at under $10, it's too tempting not to accessorize it. We used black nail polish to paint the table and inexpensive cork rounds from the craft store to make the checkers. You can use a standard chess or checkers set or make a set like we did for any holiday or season. Find more Halloween decoration and party ideas.
A chessboard has 64 squares in alternating dark and light colors. When determining the layout and size of the squares, leave a border around the perimeter of the table so players have room to place opponents' pieces as they collect them. Use a ruler to lay out your grid. Once you've got it set up, lay down strips of masking tape in alternating swaths.
Draw squares on the masking tape. Once all the squares have been drawn, cut out each square with a craft knife and place directly over where you just cut. This will form your grid.
Painting laminate furniture is a complicated business. Sure you can sand it down and do all kinds of fancy prep work, but for small paint jobs, cheap nail polish is your best bet.
Apply several thin coats of black polish to make them opaque. Your masking tape acts as a resistor for your darker colored squares.
Let the nail polish dry completely and then remove the adhesive tape. Use your craft knife to clean up any rough edges.
To make a game of checkers, use 24 small cork rounds that fit inside the squares on your game board. Paint 12 rounds one color and the other 12 colors (we did green and orange).
Michael Hall
Decorate your checkers with paint markers, craft glue, and googly eyes for a Halloween look.
Michael Hall
Screw the legs to your table and create a game..
