One day, about a year and a half ago, I was browsing through an antique store with nothing particular in mind, just looking.  What I found was the frame for a mirror that had been on an antique dresser.  It was just the frame, no glass, nothing else.  But I liked it!  It was only $25 so it became mine!  My thought was to turn it into a chalkboard.

As I’ve mentioned before it often takes quite a bit of time at our house for something to go from being an idea to reality, so a year and a half later, I’ve finally turned my frame into a chalkboard!

The first thing I did was to wash the frame and allow it to thoroughly dry.  I then painted it with 3 coats of Anne Sloan white chalk paint which I had left over from previous projects.

After the third coat was on and dried, I used fine sandpaper to lightly sand the frame everywhere and to take off some paint in places to give it a worn look.

I next used Anne Slane clear wax on the piece.  Using a round brush I brushed it on all over the piece and then wiped off the excess with a clean rag.

After allowing the wax to dry I repeated the process one more time to give it a durable protective cover.  When that coat was completely dry, I buffed it with a clean cloth.

My husband and I purchased a piece of plywood from Lowes for the actual chalkboard.  Poplar or birch is a good choice. My husband measured the size of the opening and cut the piece out for me.  For some reason, he doesn’t trust me with his saber saw!!

We then applied a coat of primer spray paint to the wood.

A few months ago I changed the rug that lies under the dining room table to a blue color with the thought of incorporating some navy blue as an accent color in my front rooms.  I purchased what I thought would be a dark navy blue chalkboard paint, but when we applied it to the wood, even after a few coats it turned out to be more of a royal blue to me.

I happened to have a can of black chalkboard spray paint so we painted over the blue with it and it turned out perfect.

Next step was to place it into the back of the frame and tack it into place. And the last step was to apply hangers to the back of the frame.

And there it is adorning one wall in my dining room and I love the addition to the room!  This was actually one of my easiest DIY projects.  Lowes also sells pieces of black chalkboard ready to go, no painting required. They would only work on fairly small projects though and this one was too large.

So now you have a very good excuse to go browsing local antique and thrift stores looking for creative pieces to turn into chalkboards or whatever other unique ideas you have.  (Wow, I definitely need to improve my chalkboard artistry!)

Thanks for stopping by today!

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