How to Make a DIY Chalkboard
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Having a chalkboard in your home can be fun and functional, and it’s easy to make a DIY Chalkboard for any area.
I’m a doodler, and a list maker too. I have list of lists, and pieces of paper scattered around with my to-dos, groceries to get, and random reminders. After realizing that my lists were fine and dandy for me, what I’ve realized is that the rest of the family’s requests were not making it to my list. And my list is the one that requests ultimately need to be on if it’s gonna get got, because I’m the getter or the getter sender. Got it? Good.Anyway, I decided to make an attempt at getting all our lists together on one giant list. I settled on a DIY chalkboard, conveniently placed in the heart of the kitchen for everyone to access. I’m pretty handy with things, but I’m also blessed with my own handy man, Randy, who also serenades me with song, and can do a mean shadow puppet on the fly. Handy Randy took charge of this one for me. I told him what I was thinking as far as size goes, and that I wanted a simple chalkboard without a frame, nothing fancy.
It was done in no time. Wanna see how?
You’ll need:
wood (cut to desired finished size – we bought 3/4″ x 20″ x 8′ pine board (poplar would be nice too)
a paintbrush for the primer
a small foam paint roller, for applying the chalkboard paint
wall hooks (if hanging on a wall)
Randy purchased the wood at our home improvement store. We used a 3/4″ x 20″ x 8′ pine board (poplar would be nice too).
It was already the perfect width, so while at the store, he had them cut it down to the correct length, which saved some work time back at home.
He began with a good coat of primer. We had some tinted primer left over from another project, as well as an old paintbrush. It’s always nice when leftovers come in handy. The primer doesn’t have to be tinted, it’s just what we had leftover.
Once the primer was dry, two coats of the chalkboard paint were rolled on, with proper dry times in between each coat.
When everything was dry, Randy attached basic d-ring hangers (similar to these) so the chalkboard would hang flat. The hangers are hardly noticeable, so I haven’t messed with them, but they could easily be painted the wall color in order to blend in, or fancied up with bows or the like.
That’s it. What a quick and easy project. Now we have one giant list for everyone to use. No excuses now for me to forget the milk, huh? In addition to the grocery list, it’s fun to leave notes for each other, and get input on dinner ideas as they think of things.
What a great gift this would make with a box of colored chalk and an eraser. Or maybe a fun addition to a child or teen’s room? I can think of a few other places where a chalkboard would come in handy.
Do you have any chalkboard ideas to share? Please do!
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i home school my 2 children. and i have been looking for places that i can buy a chalkboard. but they want a lot of money and they are all to big for what i want to use it for. so with your ideas i am going to make one for us. at the size we need. and have the kids help it will be a fun art project for them. I know that they will love it. Thank you.
What a great idea. Now I just need to find a spot in my kitchen.
This is a great idea! I can’t wait to move so I can do this 🙂 Keep up the great work.
I’ve seen chalkboard paint a lot since joining Pinterest and it makes me want to alter and make so many things. I love the ability to make any surface into a chalkboard. My family always had a whiteboard that was the same purpose as your chalkboard is (it also had doctor’s appointments on it so we knew where each other was). I always liked having that main board to look at because it really did have everyone put in their part, and no one was forgotten. Plus, you’re right, writing notes to each other or drawing doodles was a favorite thing for me to do. Does the chalkboard paint have a strong smell? And does it take longer than normal paint to dry?
Such a simple yet wonderful idea for a kitchen. I have a spot that I wanted to put a chalkboard in but have been trying to figure out how to do it to fit my needs. Thanks for extremely easy tutorial.
Thank you!! You’ve given me an idea.. Am going to make a smaller version of this since I’ve no space for the long board… 😉
Wow! I love this idea! We are moving into a new place that has a chalkboard wall. I wondered what in the world we were going to do with it. But putting grocery lists, and to-do lists will be perfect!
This idea is basically the same but if you’re short on wall space this works great, all you do is paint the inside of a kitchen cabinet and presto you have a note board ,the chalk paint also comes in spray cans that works well also.
Great idea, Cindy! I’ve never tried the spray can chalk paint, but I sure can think of a million uses for it.
Has anyone tried the chalk markers with this instead of actual chalk? Does it work ok?!