Blackboard are Better than Chalkboards

Okay so chalkboards are everywhere these days and in my opinion they can go 'cutesy' really fast. For that reason I was never really into the trend. That is until I saw these images.

(Source)

(Source)

(Source)

Aren't those amazing? These are clearly expensively designed rooms and they make chalkboard walls look textured and cool as opposed to kitschy and crafty. Inspired by these images I decided to do my own chalkboard wall.

I chose this wall in the back of my kitchen. It is by the basement door and the back door. I chose this wall because I can't hang anything on it because of the electrical box. The box is non-functioning so it's just there built into the wall with nothing to do.

I started by taping the whole area. I don't normally tape everything when I paint but since it is such a small area I figured it would be easier. Plus I was about to use black paint so I knew mistakes would be harder to mask. I used black chalkboard paint from Valspar. It only came in quarts. I asked the worker how much wall space a quart could do and she said a 10'x10' area. This wall is about 3'x8' so I only got one. It was $19.98. I used a 3" paint brush to do the whole thing because I didn't want to break out a roller for such a small space. I did two coats and used less than half of the quart. I let it dry over night and then I took the tape off. I was dismayed to find that some of the black paint had leaked through in places.

I knew this would really bug me so I got out a small artist paint brush (about 1/2") and touched up the paint with the leftover kitchen paint and some white semi-gloss paint I had on hand. So much better!

The paint is still wet in the first image, it has since dried and blends in perfectly. So after I did that little correction I primed the whole wall with chalk. I don't really know why you have to do this but I did it.

Again, I'm not sure of the purpose of this but I love how it looks after it's all been wiped off.

I had a little trouble capturing the affect on camera, but I am seriously happy with the result. It gives my kitchen something interesting to break up all the beige and white. It was such an easy and relatively cheap project since I only had to buy the paint. I'm so happy I changed my mind about this trend.