Monday, November 7, 2011

DIY Chalkboard Project

I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend! The weather has been so {mild} nice for this time of year, I was able to hit a few yard sale and estate sales, if you can believe it. The season hasn't ended yet! :)


I love being in a family that brings me stuff to 'makeover', is your family like that? "Oh Michelle can do something with that..." is what I hear a lot. So when my FIL brought me a ginormus fake oil painting, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.


Here is the 'before'. Can you tell just how big this baby is? It's 32" X 56", it's a biggin'. I think that it once hung in a restaurant. if I'm not mistaken. It's got some nice things happening for it....nice frame, fabric covered fillet, and the sheer size of it.



I took the faux oil painting out and rolled on a coat of chalkboard paint. While that was drying I scrubbed the frame with warm soapy water and painted the fillet. It had several stains (it's fabric) and a little dingy looking, so I used craft paint and painted right over it.



This is how well it turned out, looks good as new.


After a couple of more coats of chalkboard paint, and an over night dry-time, it was ready to reassemble and hang. I did change the direction of the wire to portrait style vs. landscape. Aside from cleaning, I did nothing else to the frame, I love it when that happens!


I hung it on this little small wall we have by the back door and hung it low enough that Logan can have his fun with it too.


As you probably know, you should always 'season' the board before using, which I did and wrote a little seasonally appropriate quote.


I hung my maple leaf garland across the top, just for fun. I broke took off a couple of leaves so it wasn't too long. If you would like to see how to make this Maple Leaf Garland yourself, click HERE. It's a fun project too.


Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you're inspired to make yourself a chalkboard!


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8 comments:

  1. The chalkboard is wonderful! The frame has so much character and really makes it special.

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  2. What a great chalkboard! I love what you did with it.

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  3. That looks great, Michelle! How wonderful that you didn't have to do anything to the frame. It really looks good there and I love the size.

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  4. Love it! The frame is so pretty and it's going to be handy to have this around for notes or inspirational messages.

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  5. Hello, I love this chalkboard you made. I have a question. Do you just paint the chalkboard paint on top of the faux oil painting and use that as the chalkboard surface. I have a picture like this that I'd like to turn into a chalboard but, the oil painting is flimsy. There is no back to it. I think it is just mounted to the frame. If you'd like to get back to me by email rather then here on your comments my email address is: gefandsuzy@hotmail.com Thank you for your time!

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  6. Looks fantastic! I made over an old art piece a while ago. I'm still on the look out for chalk pens. Apparently they're supposed to be the trick to writing beautifully, but yours looks good as is!

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  7. I love this idea, I've been wanting to do something like this because we collect old frames and when I saw yours I showed my husband and said " See this is what I'm talking about" ! :-) When our grandkids come over they can use this in the play room or when I'm in the mood, I can draw something and write a phrase just like you did...Which I loved!

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  8. I made the same: from my parents room to my dining room: http://ladaridari.blogspot.it/2010/09/baroque-frame.html
    I enjoy writing on my chalkboard!

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Thank You for taking the time to comment! Because of the insane amount of spam comments, I had to stop anonymous comments-sorry for the inconvenience.
Michelle