Commissioned Chess Board (2” Squares)

This was a project I hadn’t seen coming my way, but I’m very happy that I took it on. The customer had first purchased from my one of my smaller boards - with a very similar design - which had 1-1/4” squares that unfortunately ended up being too small for the chess pieces he had purchased from a different craftsman. After a conversation, I agreed to create a similar board to the one that was purchased originally, but scaled up to have 2” squares and a border to match.

While darker than a lot of my designs, I’m really happy with how this turned out. The main grid is created from Walnut (dark) and Canary Wood (light), bordered with a strip of Ash. The primary border itself is made of Bolivian Rosewood for a rich, dark contrast to the already dark Walnut, and incorporates an accent strip of Mahogany that is itself flanked by thin strips of Flamed Maple.