Budget:
- $0 for plywood board (picked up at a winery somewhere)
- $0 for paint (left-over + generous donation from friend)
- $0.25 for wood to make holder (guy at store felt that he couldn’t just give it to me for free)
Time:
- <1 hours
I’ve been wanting a chalk board since I’ve read various blog posts about other people’s. My friend, M, made a huge one in her own dining room and had some left over paint. She was nice to offer it to me.
Then, I wanted a place to hold the chalks. I kind of envisioned a pretty simple thing, so I got a simple piece of wood from a store that I won’t list its name. I thought I had paid too much for the amount of wood I got, and it was basically part of their scrap pile.
In any case, I wiped the plywood board clean first. One of the sides was fairly smooth, so I didn’t bother sanding it. However, I did have to cut it to fit in a panel that in the kitchen.
Then, I began to paint 2 coats of chalk paint on the board. I waited until the 1st coat dried before applying the 2nd. Quite pleased with the result.
The scrap wood was too wide/long for the width of the board, so more sawing. The saw was not very easy to use. It vibrated quite a bit, and I couldn’t hold on to the wood too well. The cut line could’ve been much smoother, but I guess it has a more ‘rustic’ look to it. Then I painted it with left over light blue paint.
Lastly, I painted on some “vine & leaves” on the top of the plywood board where there was a small crack. I looked REALLY HARD for a stencil pattern online but couldn’t find any. After debating for a long while between making my own stencil board first vs. free hand the design, I decided to go free hand. Well, in all honesty, the result is pretty… from afar’. I hope no one examine it too closely when they look at it. Rather, I hope people will just be impressed by the fact that I MADE a chalkboard. :p
Attached the “chalk holder” to the bottom of the board, and nailed the board to the wall. Here we have a chalk board in the kitchen!
and a zoomed-out look:
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