A Chalkboard "Wall"

This post was written a few days ago, but automatically set to post this morning. Other than this, we will probably not be able to respond to any emails, FB posts, or any other things for a couple of days. We ask that you please keep our extended family in your prayers.

I have been in love with all of these chalkboard walls I have seen over the last couple of years. One of my FAVORITE ones by far is Jennifer's over at The Old Painted Cottage.  Anyway, as much as I wanted one I couldn't figure out where we could put one. Because we live in a townhome that has a pretty open floorplan we just have a few huge walls and not a whole lot of smaller ones. Because I couldn't find a wall that would work, I pretty much just gave up on the idea for a while. Then recently I thought it couldn't hurt to try it on the end of our island cabinets. It was the perfect spot for Lillie to be able to reach and draw on. So, we gave it a try! At first we painted the end near the dining room (those are the photos shown in the step by step part) but when you walked through the front door you immediately saw it and it was a bit jarring. After starting at it for a week or so it just kept driving me crazy so I ended up painting back over it and hanging the IKEA rod with the basket and painting the other side with the chalkboard which I like so much better! 

Anyway, here is how we did it:

First, find a fun little helper and get some chalkboard paint. We got ours at Ace Hardware but I am pretty sure you can get it about anywhere. Then we just used a paint tray, a little mini roller, some tape and little brush.

 

Then we taped off the trim and put down a towel.

And then we started painting.

And in case you think that the photo above is just for the blog take a look at the first coat - haha!

Once she went to bed I added a second coat to "clean it up" a bit.

In the end, though, we ended up painting over it entirely and we painted the other side instead, which I like so much better!

 

 

And here is the other side which we painted back over and added these IKEA rods to.

I hope you all are having a splendid Monday!