I’m thinking of painting the black pieces a mid tone gray because the black seems to blend in too much with the black squares on the board. Especially in low lighting. Jeff, can the pieces be painted without compromising the functionality?
This is what it might look like.
Did you happen to make mistakes or miss things because of the black color? Is your experience different with the white pieces?
I would just get used to it 
Although I agree you need enough light to play with the board. For me that is more because of the contrast between the lighting below it and the darker room.
Yes they can be painted and it will still work - at least with a regular layer of paint.
@Jeff Thank you!
Hello, I actually did paint my pieces. I feel the same like you, too high contrast between black and white and the black pieces blend to much into the black squares. On top of that, i feel like its hard to distinguish between black King and black Queen. They both have a similar “spiky” head design and in low light its very hard to see the cross on the Kings head. I was worried about the touch functionality of the pieces after painting, so I finally opted to just add some visual accents. I used standard Edding paint markers and to my surprise, even those areas are still touch-sensitive. I’ll add a picture of the result and even if I’m not super happy how they look now, I feel like they’re way more usable. I remarked that with sweaty hands, the color might peel off from the plastic. I whish Chessup would come up with different sets of pieces and with other board colors by themselves.
I’m very interested. This was something I didn’t realise until it was sitting in front of me. It looks sharp in photos, but I’m definitely thinking of how to either modify or replace the pieces. The one I wanted to change to (World Chess) are lovely but have the same problem; the board is white-black. If I had my wish, I’d like a different plastic sheet of white-green that would sit on top of the board, but saving that I love the Latvian colour-up with paint pens. I was leaning towards a blood-red tone for black, but I’d love to see what others have done.
Piece sets are such a personal thing…
Check this out!
The red pieces look great. Does the paint chip off when the pieces are together in a bag?
Looks great. How about the touch sensitivity?
Those red pieces look great! Super job
Any chance there is a price for a full replacement set? Might the consider buying one to paint while keeping the original set as is?
I’m sure you can buy a set from ChessUp. I just love the red pieces. It makes such a difference for me when playing. HTXChess was the inspiration behind the red. I was thinking Grey. But red just POPS!
Holy, this is… I don’t know what it is… but this is not what I would do…
Reach out to us and we can set up a full set order.
The prices of the pieces on the site include shipping per piece, we can price it a lot better if ordering a full set.
Is the texture / touch different from the unpainted pieces? This is an amazing outcome visually, and answers my biggest complaint about usability.
It feels the same in every way. I used Krylon satin finish paint. Apple red.
When painting these, should we avoid painting the bottom of the piece to avoid conflicts with the board?
