I didn't have off-white paint on hand so I mixed tan with white to get my desired color.

Paint the plaque a thin coat of the white. You can even add a tiny bit of water to the paint to give it the white washed look.

I like that you can still see the wood grains through the paint.

A checker board is 8 squares by 8 squares {64 total squares}.
You will need to measure off your boxes. Take the number of inches long of your plaque and divide it by 8. This will give you the necessary width of each of your boxes. For example: if your plaque is 6x6 inches, take 6 inches divided by 8 boxes and you get .75. This means each box will be 3/4 of an inch wide.

Use your ruler and pencil to mark off your measurements on all four sides.

Now connect all the lines.

Vertically too.

Once you have all your grid lines marked off you are ready to begin painting your squares.

In order to get straight lines you will need to tape off each box with painter's tape.

Use VERY little paint when painting in your colored boxes, otherwise the paint will more like run under the tape {and it won't look as distressed}.

Peel the tape off.

Then place over the next square.

Continue along.

Once you have all your boxes painted, make sure they have dried completely.

Take your sandpaper and begin to distress your checker board.
Sand extra hard on the edges. I sanded enough to be able to see some of the original wood color.

See how much lighter my turquoise boxes are now?

And you can see the wood grains {which I LOVE}.

Take your pencil and go over any remaining pencil lines.

Go over the checker board with the sand paper again to remove the excess eraser goopies.

And there you have it!
Your very own cottage chic checker board.

Now you just need to pick out your favorite button checker pieces!

And check mate!
Oh wait, that's chess...