Upcycled Thrift Store Chess Sets

Whenever I'm in a thrift store, I look to see if there are any chess sets.  I've had a few good finds, but this post is dedicated to the cheap, borderline-unusable chess sets that I've 'upcycled' into something fun and usable.  Refurbishing these sets is a fun craft project, especially when the family is all sitting around on a cold, rainy day.

First is a folding wooden set that I've seen at Walmart for $30.  I picked it up at a thrift store for $7.  When I bought it, the board was unusable - at the time, the LIGHT squares were the same color as the border (i.e., virtually indistinguishable from the dark squares).  I used a bit of acrylic paint to make them lighter.  To give the pieces some personality, I attached some googly eyes.

 

The bishops are our favorites.  They look like Muppets.

The other set is the common "3-in-1" glass set that we've all seen (and probably owned) before. I picked one up at a thrift store for $4.99

These things seem elegant until you realize that they are completely unplayable.  It's nearly impossible to tell the pieces apart, and you can distinguish the squares from each other only when viewing the board from about 45 degrees.

I painted the hollow interiors with some acrylic paint, attached some felt, and attached a paper checkerboard to the underside of the glass board.  Total cost of materials was about $3.  The result is something that I think looks pretty nice and which is much more playable

Hopefully this has inspired others to upcycle some old chess sets to give them a second life (or a first useful life).  Whether they be finds from the thrift store or just unused sets that have been sitting at the back of the closet. 

If anyone else has photos of chess set upcylcing projects they'd like to share, I'd love to see them.  Please post them below. 

For their 1992 re-match, I have to wonder what Spassky would have done if Bobby Fischer had insisted they play with "googly-eyed" chessmen, instead of a 1950 Dubrovnik set.

Omg the googly eye chess set looks just like the chesskids characters.  That's super creative and very cute. 

I love it! Repurposed objects always intrigue me.

Over the last year I've picked up a couple more glass sets at thrift stores and spent a relaxing afternoon or two painting them. I think the addition of color really brings these sets to life and makes them usable for a game.

This is my favorite color scheme so far for these upcycled glass sets. It makes the set so much more playable for a real game. This time I actually painted the underside of the board with spray paint to give it a black and white checkerboard, and I think the result was worth the effort. (I had previously just been taping a printed paper checkerboard to the underside).

Very creative, Sir! And you're really on to something with your glass-set efforts - such a huge improvement!