Far and Away Table

This table was kind of an experiment.
An experiment of which I am not sure I like the results or not.
The table is from my grandparents home. It was a light colored stain that was pealing up and was heavily scratched...unfortunately the scratches were rather deep and I think the table had been sanded once already. The top was also a wood veneer and was not able to handle much sanding without the glue showing through. 
The end result of the stripping, sanding and staining was that the center of the table would not take the stain evenly and it looked pretty bad.
Since this table was going in the den if figured why not paint a checker/chess board on it. I had taped off the edge at 18 inches square. The black border is 1 inch thick. The squares are 2 inches.  I used a ruler and a pencil to mark of the squares but I free handed painting the squares instead of taping it off. This was a mistake in my opinion. I think it deserved sharper edges. 
Anyway I used acrylic craft paint for the checker board, it worked well.
Sanded it lightly to distress it a little.
Added 2 coats of polyacrylic. 

I like to refer to it as the "Far and Away" table.
It is by far the best table around, the further away the better it looks.
Just sayin.