Make It: Chalkboard

I've mentioned it a time or two before, but I have fallen in love with the chalkboard updates over at the blog, Little Baby Garvin. I wish I would have seen it before I started documenting The Boy with  blurb bubbles--I totally would'a copied her idea. Anyways, in the spirit of re-purposing whatever we can for the boy's makeshift temporary nursery, I found a tutorial on how to make your very own chalkboard out of an old picture frame.

I have tons of old frames. Most have been sitting in a closet since our hallway remodel, as I am too lazy to map out placement on the wall to re-hang them. Yes, I'm lazy. Sue me. I'm pregnant, remember?

Today was just as good of day as any to take a trip to Home Depot and buy some chalkboard paint. And a couple foam rollers even though  we have foam rollers at home. Why buy foam rollers if we already have them? Easy answer... because I am notorious for failing to rinse them well enough after use, and it drives NZ nuts. So, for $2.50, I figured buying a couple of designated chalkboard paint rollers would keep me out of trouble. I also lined our paint tray with aluminum foil ( thanks again, pinterest) for easy clean-up.

To start, I removed the backing from the frame. My idea was to pop the glass out of the frame as well, but unfortunately, the glass has adhesive between the frame and itself, so it was easier to tape off the frame, then to pry the adhesive off. If I were to do it again, I would choose a frame whose glass pops out.

Just sayin'.

I poured a little of the chalkboard paint ( I used Rustoleum Black) into my foil lined paint tray and coated my roller with it. I rolled in one direction, laying the paint on in a medium thickness. The hard part about rolling paint onto glass, is that if you roll over one spot too much, you can see the glass through the paint.

After allowing it to dry for 4 hours, I then applied a second coat, which got rid of all of the imperfections from my first coat.

All in all, it was an easy project for under $15.