Happy Thursday! Today I am going to share with you how I made my DIY large chalkboard. We don’t have much “large wall” space in our home, as in most of our walls have windows! This is great because it is always full of natural light. We only have two “big walls” downstairs and one of them is filled with our industrial wall shelf/entertainment center. But figuring out what to put on the other wall was more difficult. Large wall art can be so expensive so I knew I needed to find another way. Back in November, my mom, sister and I went to the Magnolia Market in Waco and I left with one of their signature Magnolia wreaths (How could I resist?). When I got back home anxious to find the perfect place for it I was disappointed to realize that I didn’t really have the perfect place to show it off. So since then it has been on a wall in my bedroom. I decided on a large chalk board for the second living room wall because I felt like I needed to add something black instead of a lighter color. Our new couches that arrive TODAY are white and so I was afraid everything would be too light. You can find lots of Chalkboard DIY’s on pinterest, but here is how I made mine!
After walking around Hobby Lobby trying to figure out how to take on this project, I quickly realized that if I bought everything there it was going to end up being way more than I wanted to spend. I knew I had to find a large piece of artwork to start with because Hobby Lobby didn’t even sell an empty frame big enough. The very first Goodwill that I went in had this large painting for $20! I couldn’t pass it up, and didn’t take the time to look around anywhere else. This painting was almost as tall as me! It would be the perfect size for my wall.
While I was at Hobby Lobby I grabbed a small thing of black chalkboard paint (pictured below). I am glad I purchased the small container because it went a long way! I still have half of it left after painting this HUGE chalkboard. I think it was about $4, and if its not on sale you can use a coupon!
You will also need my favorite wood stain. Me and Brett joke that eventually everything in our house will be stained with this color, because we love it so much! You can find the link to the wood stain in my last post. But it is called Cordovan Brown by Behr.
Next, I ran in Lowe’s to get wood for the frame. I grabbed 2, 1x4x6’s and 2, 1x4x4’s and went to the back to get them cut. Note to self, don’t forget your measurements at home so you don’t have to wing it! Luckily it still worked out for me. ha! Also, I would recommend getting your wood at Home Depot instead because they don’t charge for wood cuts. Lowe’s charges 25 cents a cut, which is like nothing, but still save where you can right?
So the first thing I did was paint on the chalkboard paint. I painted one coat vertically, let that dry for an hour, and then one coat horizontally. Then I let it dry for 24 hours. p.s. I hate when that is part of the process… my middle name is impatient. 😉
While that was drying I was still able to start on the frame. I quickly stained each piece of wood so they wouldn’t be too dark, and literally just screwed them onto the existing white frame of the picture. I’m getting pretty good with Brett’s drill! I was originally hoping that I could just attach the frame with wood glue so there wouldn’t be screws showing, but that was wishful thinking.
After you have waited 24 hours for the chalkboard paint to settle, just lightly go over the whole thing with the side of a piece of chalk. This is to set the chalkboard paint so that it won’t leave chalk marks in the future. Then just wipe it off with a wet paper towel.
And viola! You have a huge piece for your empty wall! This ended up costing about $45, which is so much less than you would normally spend for a piece of wall art this big! Here is the finished product!
**Wreath is from Magnolia Market and the ribbon I found on clearance at Hobby Lobby for $2.00!!
I hope you decide to make a large chalkboard for your home! I love changing mine for every season! You can see how I change it up on my instagram, @thebloomingnest! See you there!