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Friday, July 4, 2014

Home made chalkboards : DIY



You all know how I love a quick DIY project, so after finding some chalk in one of Enid's toy stashes which I'd forgotten about, I figured she needed a chalk board to use them on. I had previously used this 'recipe' for home made chalk board paint so I knew it worked out great.


All you need is 1 cup of Acrylic paint and 1 tablespoon of tiling grout. I had both of these things in the house already so this was a free project for me, but you can pick up acrylic paint for as little as £1 from a cheap shop which sells art supplies - mine was from Wilkinsons - and a small bag of grout will cost very little also. It's a huge saving when you see the price of chalk board paint by the pot in DIY shops and the great thing is you can use any colour acrylic you want and have a non traditional, funky chalk board. I chose simple black because I wanted to use a colour that Enid associated with chalkboards so she would know what it was!


All you need to do is mix the paint and grout up well and paint it on your walls, simple! I realised this mix made enough for quite a big chalk board and never one to waste anything, I thought maybe my house could use a couple more boards.


I drew around a dinner plate with a pencil for this cute circular board in my hallway, I freehand painted the circle which took rather a lot of concentration for my unsteady hands! A good tip for getting nice edges is to have a cup of water on hand, dip the very tip of your brush in the water to thin down the paint when you're doing the edges and it'll be much more fluid. 

You can use a mini roller to paint your board for a smoother finish, but I find it easier with a paintbrush.


 I also did this large rectangular board in our bedroom as a cute wall centre focus to leave reminders on. I actually drew around a picture frame for the shape and then masked it up for painting. Once the paint was dry, I cut some cute polka dotted washi tape and added it as a border, this also acted as support to hold my chalk string.

To add my string, I carefully used some scissors to score a groove in my piece of chalk, then tied a length of yarn around it and stuck the yarn under my washi tape. So far it's holding up pretty well and hasn't fallen down.


Once your chalk board is dry, don't forget to scrub over it with the side of a piece of chalk, then wipe off. This primes the board ready for future use!



Here's Enids personal board, I free handed the heart and she loves it! I'm glad I used black as I handed her some chalk and she crawled straight to the heart and started scribbling.

I hope you liked this easy DIY, I think it's a great way to add some personality to your home. If I had a larger house I would definitely do an entire chalkboard wall somewhere fun like in the kitchen.
The great thing about this is how easy it is to remove, a quick sand and you can paint over it, so it's a great way to add some customisation to your home!


1 comments:

mylilyotv said...

Such a great idea, I never knew it could be that easy! I'm definitely going to have to try this one out :)
Danielle xo
My Lily