Basically, the recipe I followed called for one cup of regular wall paint (I used up some leftover black I had from painting my doors), and two tablespoons of unsanded grout. By the way, when I told the guy at Home Depot why I needed unsanded grout, I am pretty sure he thought I was a lunatic. He certainly didn't believe me that I could make chalkboard paint with it, and twice he tried to direct me to the "real" chalkboard paint. So anyway, I read that just dumping the grout into the paint results in clumps, so I made a "slurry" with the grout and a couple of tablespoons of water first, then added that to my paint. That's it! So easy. It took me longer to measure and tape off the area I wanted to paint than it took to mix it up.
I have had this big blank space above my coffee station in my kitchen that I was just dying to do something with, and a chalkboard wall seemed like the perfect fit for it. Now I can write messages, grocery lists, menus, etc. It is too high for the kids to play with, but I am glad I experimented with this one first, because I will do a couple of things differently when I make them their own. First of all, I ended up using a brush to paint this one in my kitchen - next time I will get a small roller. Also, I did two coats of the chalkboard paint, but I think it could have used one or two more. The two coats covered the area fine, but I think if it was a little bit thicker the texture would be better.
Here are some shots of the before, during and after (I apologize for the small pics - Blogger is not letting me adjust the size at all):
My 3x3 taped-off square.
After one coat of paint.
Voila - chalkboard wall! (I don't normally have a tutu and a stuffed snake on my fridge - they were in toy time-out.)
Yay! I love my new chalkboard wall!
I didn't have chalk on hand, so I had to pick some up when I was at the grocery store. All they had was some cheap Crayola chalk, and I am not too thrilled with it. It breaks easily and doesn't have the best consistency on the board either. I will have to check around to find some really good chalk. I seasoned the board before writing on it by dampening the chalkboard and then rubbing a coat of chalk all over it before wiping off. It doesn't seem to get completely clean, but I am okay with that as I like the sort of vintage look it has. This was really fun and super easy to do - I will definitely do it again with a couple of minor adjustments. Let me know in the comments if you attempt it too!
