Chalk it up to AWESOME! {DIY - Chalkboard}

I have wanted a chalkboard for forever.

It's the teacher that I could have been coming out in me, I'm sure.  Every time I see a chalkboard at a restaurant, I want to erase everything on it and start over.  Usually with a grammar lesson.  And a doodle.

Anyway, give this girl a can of chalkboard spray paint and watch her wildest dreams come true!

In the process of moving one zillion times this summer, I have found that I have a lot of picture frames laying around because I'm not motivated to hang up a wall of pictures like I had when we lived in Kansas City.  I've picked just a couple of the kiddos that I hung over the faux fireplace and I'll change those out as the mood strikes me.  So, since I have a shat-ton of picture frames still boxed up, I chose a big one for my first chalkboard (because there will be more.  So many more.).

You could probably spray paint the frame (it's fun and easy and everybody loves a good can of spray paint) but I find that your color choices are sort of limited - and also I love to collect paint cards and read their names out loud and imagine what I could paint with them.  I bought a can of Candy Apple Red from The Wals this summer to paint a chair for Finneaus, and I have a lot of paint left over.  As in, that whole can you see below?  That was the smallest size I could get and it's pretty much full.  I'll have Candy Apple Red paint for the rest of my days.

Commence with the painting.  Oh, first you should cover your surface, make sure the wind is not blowing, and if it is, grab the copious amounts of packing tape that you have left over from your gazillion and twelve moves (what do you mean you don't have packing tape just laying around in case you get the urge to move?  Must just be me...) and tape down the paper.  You are now ready to paint away.

 

It took me two coats of Candy Apple Red to get the color where I really wanted it.  Plus, my frame had a little fern design on it and I had to wiggle the brush around those to make sure I got it completely covered.  I let it dry overnight before I put  the second coat on.

Then came the fun part...spray painting the chalkboard paint.  It was like magic!  I actually just sprayed the cardboard backing of my frame and then put it in front of the glass so that I had a solid back (basically, if you turn my chalk board around, you'll see the piece of glass).  But that solid back is, in fact, a piece of glass, so this would NOT be advisable if you were going to let little kiddos write on your chalk board.  In that case, measure your frame, go to your local lumber store, buy a piece of plywood, sand it smooth, then spray it with the chalkboard spray paint and then attach to your frame.

I lack patience and I knew I wasn't going to let Finn play with this particular chalk board, so I went the unsafe, easy way.  Next time I'll do it the hard, plywood way so that Finn can play, too.  (Excuse me while I go take that box of broken light bulbs away from him...that boy, finds the darnedest things to play with...)

And voila!  The finished project hanging happily in my kitchen, safely out of reach of Finn, but totally an acceptable height for everyone else in the house.  Sidebar: I feel as though people in general hang pictures much too high on their walls.  Someday I will compose a post on acceptable heights to hang pictures on a wall, because I think the world would benefit from my knowledge.  And also because it bothers OCD me.

See you tomorrow for more DIY fun...a totally kid-friendly craft (no glass shards involved, pinky swear).

I have wanted a chalkboard for forever.

It's the teacher that I could have been coming out in me, I'm sure.  Every time I see a chalkboard at a restaurant, I want to erase everything on it and start over.  Usually with a grammar lesson.  And a doodle.

Anyway, give this girl a can of chalkboard spray paint and watch her wildest dreams come true!

In the process of moving one zillion times this summer, I have found that I have a lot of picture frames laying around because I'm not motivated to hang up a wall of pictures like I had when we lived in Kansas City.  I've picked just a couple of the kiddos that I hung over the faux fireplace and I'll change those out as the mood strikes me.  So, since I have a shat-ton of picture frames still boxed up, I chose a big one for my first chalkboard (because there will be more.  So many more.).

You could probably spray paint the frame (it's fun and easy and everybody loves a good can of spray paint) but I find that your color choices are sort of limited - and also I love to collect paint cards and read their names out loud and imagine what I could paint with them.  I bought a can of Candy Apple Red from The Wals this summer to paint a chair for Finneaus, and I have a lot of paint left over.  As in, that whole can you see below?  That was the smallest size I could get and it's pretty much full.  I'll have Candy Apple Red paint for the rest of my days.

Commence with the painting.  Oh, first you should cover your surface, make sure the wind is not blowing, and if it is, grab the copious amounts of packing tape that you have left over from your gazillion and twelve moves (what do you mean you don't have packing tape just laying around in case you get the urge to move?  Must just be me...) and tape down the paper.  You are now ready to paint away.

 

It took me two coats of Candy Apple Red to get the color where I really wanted it.  Plus, my frame had a little fern design on it and I had to wiggle the brush around those to make sure I got it completely covered.  I let it dry overnight before I put  the second coat on.

Then came the fun part...spray painting the chalkboard paint.  It was like magic!  I actually just sprayed the cardboard backing of my frame and then put it in front of the glass so that I had a solid back (basically, if you turn my chalk board around, you'll see the piece of glass).  But that solid back is, in fact, a piece of glass, so this would NOT be advisable if you were going to let little kiddos write on your chalk board.  In that case, measure your frame, go to your local lumber store, buy a piece of plywood, sand it smooth, then spray it with the chalkboard spray paint and then attach to your frame.

I lack patience and I knew I wasn't going to let Finn play with this particular chalk board, so I went the unsafe, easy way.  Next time I'll do it the hard, plywood way so that Finn can play, too.  (Excuse me while I go take that box of broken light bulbs away from him...that boy, finds the darnedest things to play with...)

And voila!  The finished project hanging happily in my kitchen, safely out of reach of Finn, but totally an acceptable height for everyone else in the house.  Sidebar: I feel as though people in general hang pictures much too high on their walls.  Someday I will compose a post on acceptable heights to hang pictures on a wall, because I think the world would benefit from my knowledge.  And also because it bothers OCD me.

See you tomorrow for more DIY fun...a totally kid-friendly craft (no glass shards involved, pinky swear).