Make a Big Scrabble Board: Tutorial

Miss Chicago teen had a pre-graduation bonfire party this past weekend and she always likes to have something unexpected at her parties. This time it was a huge DIY Scrabble board.

This was a project she started last year and it has sat, half completed, in the garage gathering cobwebs …until last week when, with a flurry of activity, it got finished.

It takes a bit of patience but is easy to make.

You will need

  • Piece of scrap ply wood about 3’x3′ – we actually used an old bit of paneling
  • 100 Small tiles – we had a stash of 2″ sq tiles in the basement left by the previous home owner
  • Primer paint
  • Selection of colorful acrylic paints
  • Sharpie paint pens
  • Ruler
  • Pencil
  • Paint brush

Making the Board

Start by priming your wood…this is not strictly necessary but will mean the colored paint goes on much easier

For the Scrabble board you will need to create a grid of squares -15 by 15. Each square of your grid needs to be the same size as your letter tiles. A big long ruler helps here!

diy-scabble-board

diy-scabble-board-1

Then using a real Scrabble board as a guide

scrabble-board

get painting … we selected a blue/green color scheme. Each of our squares needed a couple of coats to get the color density but acrylic paint dries quickly so this wasn’t really an issue.

diy-scabble-board-2

Next using a sharpie paint pen write the score for each square and draw in the lines for the grid.

diy-scrabble-board

Making the Tiles

Scrabble contain 100 letter tiles, with the following distribution:

  • 2 blank tiles (scoring 0 points)
  • 1 point: E ×12, A ×9, I ×9, O ×8, N ×6, R ×6, T ×6, L ×4, S ×4, U ×4
  • 2 points: D ×4, G ×3
  • 3 points: B ×2, C ×2, M ×2, P ×2
  • 4 points: F ×2, H ×2, V ×2, W ×2, Y ×2
  • 5 points: K ×1
  • 8 points: J ×1, X ×1
  • 10 points: Q ×1, Z ×1

Using a Sharpie paint pen…or some black paint and a steady hand, paint each letter with it’s corresponding score.

scrabble-letters

And voila!

diy-scrabble-board-2

apparently stacking the tiles is fun too!

scrabble-tiles

love from

Creative in Chicago

XX

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