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With summer coming up and two little girls to entertain and keep mentally engaged, I am always on the prowl for fun games. Kerry of AZ Soap contacted me through my submissions page asking if I would be interested in seeing the Scrabble board that she incorporated into her concrete patio. Hmmm…YES!! I was immediately interested.

I adore word games and play Word Warp incessantly, even with children. Scrabble is similar, in that all ages can participate. And, playing games together as a family (I think) is important. It teaches them sportmanship – how to win and lose gracefully – and it lets us connect in a fun way.

So, let’s take a look at Kerry’s Scrabble board:

Ten years ago I clipped a photo from Sunset Magazine of a backyard scrabble board

Three houses and three states later, we made a plan to enlarge our existing patio. I pulled out my clipping and showed the foreman. He said, sure, no problem. His workman laid forms to create a 5 X 5 foot square in the living room area of the patio.

The problem was how to make the grid? Their solution was simple and low tech. They used rope pressed into the concrete, applied pressure. Repeat. Voila!

They stained the squares to match a scrabble board.

We made tiles out of linoleum and mailbox letters from Lowes.

The final step was acid staining the patio a warm buckskin color.
Credit: Jose Colon of Decoflooring.net stained the scrabble board and the acid stain on the patio.
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Now, Kerry started from scratch, but if you already have concrete, you can paint a board on like this:

For directions, see:
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What to do if you don’t have concrete and don’t want to bother with concrete? You could also buy a section of vinyl flooring and paint the board on that. Why not go crazy and paint a chess board on the other side?? Just make sure you use a great primer first and seal both sides of the vinyl after.

If you have a unique project, I’d love to hear about it!! Have a great day!
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