Chalk It Up!

I'm baaaaack.  Yea, its been a while...sorry...again.  Keeping up with my little guy sorta keeps me busy !

My latest project makes me all giddy inside.  Its a simple project that I've thought about doing for a while and I just bit the bullet and completed it.  Back in the day, I used to babysit this boy who had a HUGE chalkboard on a wall in his kitchen and I just loved it. He loved it too...but I think I loved it more. It was good for coloring and learning.  Now, my little guy isn't quite old enough to enjoy a chalkboard yet, but soon enough, he'll be making marks all over my painted walls the chalkboard wall.

I thought about putting the chalk paint on a blank wall we have in the kitchen, but decided to go with just a small area and use the side of our cabinets. 

I purchased my Rustoleum chalkboard paint at my local Ace Hardware store, but any home store (or Amazon) has it.  Everything else I had on hand to paint the cabinet.  Its best to use a small foam roller.  I also ended up using a small craft paint brush (not pictured) to cut in the corners and edges of the cabinet.



This project was so easy that waiting for it to dry was the hardest part.  I followed the directions on the paint can as guidance for the chalkboard.  I cleaned the cabinet surface, painted two coats (I used a fan to help it dry faster) and conditioned the chalkboard (more on conditioning a chalkboard below).  The can did say to wait three days before conditioning...I waited two...oops, I'm a rebel.  It seems to be fine, so we'll see down the road. 

I never knew that you had to condition a chalkboard before.  Heck...I didn't even know what conditioning a chalkboard was about!  Conditioning prevents your board from having permanent marks.  All you do is cover the whole board with the side of the chalk and then wipe it down using an old rag or paper towel.  Remember the days of cleaning the chalkboard with a wet sponge?  Nope.  Don't do that.

                                         

After I conditioned the board, I wanted to add a place to put the chalk.  I saw the most adorable idea like this, using a drawer pull turned upside down to hold the chalk.  I went to Lowe's and picked up a nice-sized drawer pull (similar to this) and went to work.  

And I take back about what I said earlier about waiting for the chalk to dry as being the hardest part.  This simple task was a pain in my you-know-what at first.  

I wanted to screw it into the cabinets so I actually attempted to drill holes into the cabinet. That was an epic fail due to the fact that I really couldn't reach the spot where I wanted to drill.  I did drill holes, but then couldn't get the screws in...it was a mess.  

I ended up using rubber cement glue and just glued it on.  I bet liquid nails would work just as well.  And looking back, I wish I would have put it near the top right corner, that way my little guy couldn't get to it.  Right now its empty because he's always trying to eat the chalk (along with anything edible looking) Otherwise, I love it !    

I know that chalk boarding everything is pretty popular now, but I think that it's a classic and we'll always be able to use it.  Now, in my search for the paint, I also saw that you can prime it with a metal-type paint and it will be magnetic.  That would be pretty neat for those magnetic Alphabet letters and numbers.  And there is also a dry-eraser paint that can make things like a wipe board and you can use markers on it !  Who knew this stuff was out there?!

I love it and I can't wait til my little guy can draw pictures and write his name on it.  But for now, I'll be the one having fun with it.

Has anyone used the magnetic chalkboard paint?  Or the dry-eraser paint?

Now you can Do It Yourself, Too !

~Stephanie