Homemade Chalkboard

I love chalkboards – maybe because they remind me of days when my biggest concern was what I was going to do at recess. More likely it’s because:

1) I like the look of them, always a work in progress, letting you draw, erase, draw again

2) They’re inviting – I’ve had chalkboard paint walls at a couple of my places over the years and loved the way they make any visitor want to pick up a piece of chalk and leave you a message

My quest for a chalkboard starts with this ugly heater dial that was place unfortunately smack dab in the middle of on of my main walls. It’s things like this that make me wish I could run into my condo developer on the street and ask him/her some questions, ie WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?

Best solution besides tearing my wall apart? Find something deep enough to hang over it!

So I bought a wooden canvas and painted the front with chalkboard paint (which you can buy at most any paint store). You need to let the paint dry for three days before using chalk on it (I’ve cheated and done it sooner though and it works fine). For this project though, I followed the rules.

Then I used an Exacto knife to cut strips of patterned paper I had on hand to decorate the sides:

And glued them to the sides of the chalkboard box with a matte medium paste:

I took this after I’d been playing around with the chalk on the chalkboard obviously… I couldn’t wait!

For the initial hanging I rubbed it down with chalk, then drew old-school ruler lines on it for my cursive. Actually, the first design was a big mug and “I love margaritas!” on it because we were having a margarita as I finished this up. But the second, and so far lasting, design is the cursive.

And now I no longer have to look at that ugly heater dial, instead I get to see this:

My friend Jen snuck her name on there too (like I said, people can’t resist chalk).

Here are a couple more views:

Easy and fun, hope you try it!

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Materials:

Chalkboard paint (30 oz. container is more than enough)

Something flat and hangable to paint on, material doesn’t really matter, the paint works on wood, glass, metal, drywall, plaster….etc

Paper to decorate sides (optional)

Matte medium (optional for paper)

Exacto knife

Ruler

Chalk