Homemade Chalkboard

Before we left for our Au Pair adventure my Grandmother gave me an old oversized picture of Germany that was once my aunts. Because we were sad to leave Germany before we had really intended we decided to bring it with us and put it in our sweet little apartment. But I could hardly stand much of the picture besides the actual shot of the cobble stone street. I cant seem to find any originals but the wood frame was once brown (i think?) and the picture was surrounded by a pinky-off white boarder and that had GERMANY in big letters scrolled along the lower right hand corner of the frame. It also used to have glass...but as I was cleaning it one day it shattered all over me. :( Boo.

So for about forever its been filling a huge wall in our kitchen due to lack of creative DIY-ness on my part. After it broke and I couldnt stand seeing the creamy-pink paper I cut out just the photo and spray painted the cardboard (yep, im that cheap - it looks cheap too, i know) rather than buying a large mat for it or something. Lame. It looked better than before but not so great still. I have played around with blowing up over sized artwork in black and white for us to frame there but since its so huge - like 2' x 3', it was going to be around $50.00 just to print a large photo + the unknown cost of ordering replacement glass to be cut...ouch = out of my comfort zone/budget. Then I thought maybe I'd blow up some great big huge monogram art like the Petersiks did here on their blog, but that looked wrong, too.
Its not the greatest mock-up because I can only use Paint - I dont know how to use Photoshop. But it was enough for me to know I didnt want that either. So...months of nothingness went on. No creative spark. And then! Ah ha! I remembered how much I've always wanted to have a chalkboard wall in my house. I thought, "hey, the glass is already gone so i dont have to buy that! This will just require something hard/sturdy to write on that can be glued or secured to the frame, and chalkboard paint! Wahooo!"

It only took me a few days to make a trip to Home Depot and discover a sheet of 2x4 particle board type stuff that was sturdy enough not to flex if you were writing on it and it only cost $5.73. That's more my style! I just had the guy cut it down to 2x3 and I was on my way to Michaels to buy the chalkboard paint. When I was there I found out you can buy a roll/brush on kind or a spray kind. I opted for the spray kind, for no real specific reason. $7.87 or something like that + a 40% off coupon = roughly $3.99 later I was out the door to make my new chalkboard.

Here is the frame awaiting its new fill!
Here is that big wall, oh, and that ugly electrical box that originally inspired me to hang something big to cover it up! Obviously we need something substantial there.


Three coats of thinly applied spray on chalkboard paint (done outside to avoid the fumes) + a little dry time (I should have waited longer and would recommend it but I am too much of an eager beaver sometimes to wait) = ready for its frame.

TIP: I read that in order to avoid the ghostly letters look (ie. the faint but permanent impressions of your first writings that can last long after you've wiped them off) you take a piece of chalk and rub the whole chalkboard with it. Then take your pads of your fingers and smear the chalk in nice and good and wipe it off. It will fill all those little porous holes your chalk will settle into and not cling to any of your artistic renderings thereafter!

Here's the finished project. Its not exactly inspired art but I like the idea of writing menu's on it or love notes or really great quotes to inspire us! Plus it was so simple to do!