A Wall to Write On {or…low dow on custom chalkboard paint}

I showed you repainted closet nook in Mr B’s room on Tuesday. And I’m back with the promised low down and deets.

Remember waaaaaaaaaaay

way

back in January when I told you about my 12 in ’12 goals?

Well, one of those goals was to work on Mr B’s room.

Poor guy {well, actually, I’m not sure that he cares that much}. When we first moved into the house his room was a boring beige like most of the other rooms. We painted it green {with lots of white built-ins} and it became Nolan’s office. Shortly after that, we found out we were preggo with baby #3 and Nolan moved his office out of the house. The walls got painted white and we moved Mr B in! We added a few fun things, but then I ran out of steam and spent time working on Miss M’s nursery {and, you know, growing a baby and all}.

His room needed some attention, organization, and general TLC. I’ve been intending to tackle his room for awhile, and I’m finally, finally doing it!

It all started with this free quart of paint from Ace Hardware.

I knew I couldn’t pass up free paint! And when I was trying to decide what to paint, I decided we could do Mr B’s closet!

When we moved him into the room, we took the doors off of his closet, hung fun IKEA curtains, and put a dresser in there. I’ve really loved this set up!

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I forget most of you haven’t ever been in my home!
Here’s the before, before pictures. I think these were taken right after we closed on the house.

::yawn:: Nothing to see here…move along…

And here’s his cute closet after we turned it into a kid friendly nook!

Did I mention kid friendly? And kid maintained? And..yeah…because…

I thought I’d keep it real with ya… I didn’t pick his mess up.

What’s behind those adorable curtains, you ask? Here you go! Completely messily unedited. {hangs head in shame…}

The left side normally has a chair in it and the right side is built-in storage. And {at the time of photographing} it was one huge gigantic mess.

For ages I’ve been wanting to try to make chalkboard paint in a custom color. And I know that Mr B loves to draw. So…I thought – why not try custom chalkboard paint in his closet?!

I used guidelines from Martha Stewart and from Janell at House of Fifty.

Here’s how it went down in the Q abode.

Gotta get on the snazzy painting clothes.

Attacked by the desire to paint! {Or a bouncy red dino guy thing.}

Hello, Royalty Blue, aren’t you looking lovely today?

The two things you need to make your own chalkboard paint are: Paint {yup, you need paint!} and Unsanded Grout.

The correct ratio is 1 cup of paint to 2 tablespoons of grout. They say not to mix too much because it begins to dry. So I marked out the 1 cup mark on that red bucket thing and mixed it all in there. I definitely noticed a difference in the thickness of the paint from the time I first mixed it to when I was scraping the bottom of the bucket. So I definitely would not suggest mixing much more than a cup at a time unless you are a really fast painter.

Then my sweet husband helped me get the paint on!

Guess who got to paint the super awkward corners. Me, that’s who!

We got one coat of paint on, and then……

We ran out of paint.

If we were using a lighter color, I don’t think we would have needed a second coat. But because the blue is so dark and saturated, we really needed another coat to get it even. It was very splotchy after the first coat.

And you know what’s super-cool?!

The very next day, Ace Hardware was giving away another free quart of paint! Woo to the hoo!! {Thank You, God!}

After the paint is on and dry, you have to condition the chalkboard surface.

I had read that you need to sand it. So, being the rule follower I am, I pulled out the sandpaper. After one swipe, I put it away. My walls are textured, so it was kind of sanding the color and chalkboard grit off. No worky for me.

The next step is to rub the entire chalkboard with the side of a piece of chalk. We pulled out the sidewalk chalk. This was not fun. The chalk dust was EVERYWHERE!

But rubbing the chalk in one area of the closet revealed something unexpected.

Do you see what I see?!

You think I can carve out that chunk of the wall and sell it on Ebay?

It totally looks like R2D2 to me! Look that way to anyone else?

After rubbing that chalk everywhere, you’re left with a mess.

On the floor…

On your hands…

In your hair… {I quite seriously looked like I had gray hair!}

And then…

:::deep breath:::

After that! You rub the chalk into the wall.

Might as well have a little fun while you’re at it!

{Notice I used different colors of chalk? Yeah, I kind of ran out of white. Then I ran out of light blue. Then I ran out of yellow. I ended using light green. I used a lot of chalk!}

And then……….

You rub it OFF with a dry cloth!

All these steps seem annoying, but they make it so that the chalk will erase easily and not leave marks. Worth the effort!

And then you’re finished!!!!

It looks so fabulous! Even better in real life! {I had to use my old point and shoot because I need a wide angle lens for my other camera. If I get better pictures, I’ll be sure to share!}

And the kids LOVE it! Even Miss M gets in there and colors on the wall. How fun!

I’m so glad to be working on this 12 in ’12 goal!

And I can’t wait to show you what else I did with that wall.

PS – Sarah did a super-amazing chalkboard wall in her house too! Check it out if you haven’t seen it already!

{Linked to Skip To My Lou}