Chalk To Me

Chalkboards are all the rage right now.   I see them in all sorts of cute tables, jar lids, signs and more.  I admit, I kind of like it!  I’ve always been a fan of font type and chalkboard art.  Once again, I was inspired by Pinterest for the chalk art but first I had to create a chalkboard surface somewhere!

I live in a 1920’s bungalow and I was in need of a decorating update.  My dining area had become a dumping ground for unfinished projects and wishful ideas.  I wanted to redo this area to be livable, not a reminder of my lack of completing projects and most of all, functional for entertaining.

My dad gave me his old drafting table several years ago and I knew that I wanted to continue using it in this area but I needed to clear it off and figure out how to make it work for entertaining?  I decided to float it in the middle of the room and add some bar stools for that “office” pub feel.

Terrible picture, but you get the idea of what a mess I had!

So I cleared this area by mainly putting all of the craft supplies in the garage and getting rid of useless stuff, lots of useless stuff.  Once I got the room cleared and set it up generally how I wanted it to live, I felt it needed a focal point but didn’t want to spend any money or very little and I also didn’t want to hang anything heavy.  At first I was going to paint something on the wall but there was a couple of things wrong with that idea.  1.  I’ve never really painted anything and 2.  I change my mind sometimes…what if I hated it in a week?

I decided I wanted a painted chalkboard on the wall so I could experiment with font types and designs anytime that I wanted.  If my experiments failed, I could always invite visitors to sign or leave a phrase or I could practice my math tables.

From the cleaning exercise, I remembered I had large pads of papers from yesteryear art classes.  I taped them carefully together and then cut a border so it would be symmetrical when I placed it on the wall.  I used the paper first so that I could determine the scale and not make a ton of pencil marks on my wall.  I was avoiding more cleaning, if that was possible.

I taped the paper on the wall and made sure it was evenly placed between my windows and at the right height.   I then traced a thin pencil line on the wall so I could paint within the line.

I went to my local OSH store and discovered that you can get chalk paint in any color that you wanted.  Why did they tell me that?  After I stopped my head from spinning, I decided that I wanted a classic chalkboard but not quite a saturated black color, slightly lighter.  I went with a classic grey chalkboard color, the slate color that could be found in a little red schoolhouse.

It took about 4 coats of chalkboard paint to really cover the area well.  I wanted another detail to make the design stand out and add a little glimmer.  I added a metallic gold trim line to the edge.  I just hand painted this and didn’t create a template for it.  When I did it, I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t perfect but now I like the imperfection of the hand painted trim.  The line isn’t exact and changes thickness a bit, but from a distance it looks good. 

Once the chalk paint was dry for about 24 hours, I had to rub chalk over the entire surface and wipe it off.  That was per the instructions, so I did that.  I think it had to cure again for about 24 hours before I decided to chalk it up with something fancy.

Like I said, Pinterest inspired me again.  This picture is a much bigger format of what I could do with my little chalk space, but it was the inspiration.   (DelishTish pinterest boards coming soon)

I wasn’t sure I could copy or get anywhere close to this design, but it was chalk so if I hated it…erase.  I started in the middle with the Hello and then just kept adding elements around it.  I used old fashion chalk, not a chalk pen or any other new fangled chalk writing utensil.  Chalk, a wet rag, dry rag and my hands were all I needed.  My costs for the project were about $20 for the paint and some foam brushes.

Here’s a few photos of each stage.

Drew the “Hello”, added a bit top and bottom

Started to block out the top right bubble and filled in some on the bottom.

There’s still a blank spot on the bottom left, so added some arrows cause didn’t want to move or mess with anything that I had done thus far.

I think in the end it came out well.  I haven’t changed the artwork on the board yet, but if it changes…you may just see a post about it!