Picture to Chalkboard



Confession time.  My memory is terrible.  I'm all the time leaving myself little reminder notes.  I have a special drawer in the kitchen that holds pieces of paper and a pen, so I can quickly grab them to jot down what I need to do.  Problem is those little pieces of paper get lost, fly off into the unknown and usually disappear only for me to find them weeks later  (side note - I think the one to blame for stealing my notes is the little person who lives in our dryer and steals our socks.)  Anywho. . .  this small issue gave me a reason to make one of those DIY Chalkboards I keep seeing all over the Internet.  I have a large blank wall in my kitchen right next to the pantry that would be perfect for a chalkboard to keep up with all those lists of things I need to buy and do.

 

So, of course, I hit the thrift stores to find a large mirror that I could convert.  What I found was a large picture.  The frame is the right size and lightweight, so it would be easy to hang. 

 

It's current placement of the hanging wire thingy (very technical words here) wasn't going the right direction, but I'm sure I can fix that. 



 I liked that the back of the picture - it looked so nice and put together. 

My local hardware store had the chalkboard paint in a spray can and a paint can.  I *heart* spray paint and I figured it would go on the glass smoother than a brush/paint.  The man behind the counter insisted I needed primer and some of the sites I did my "research" said the same but you'll see a little on down the page that it didn't work out so well for me. 

I decided to take the back off because I thought it would be faster and easier to remove the glass and spray paint it (I was looking for a short-cut).  This didn't work out so well for me either.

The glass wouldn't come out easily and I feared breaking or chipping it, so I put all the cardboard stuff back in.  Now I don't have my pretty back anymore (insert sad face). 

Here I am taping it up to protect the frame from the spray paint.  So much for trying to save some time - not that this project took very much time.

I put the picture on a drop cloth in the garage and sprayed it with the primer. 

Remember my primer problem I mentioned earlier? . . .  well, right after I put a coat of chalkboard spray on, it started peeling.  Good news!  It peeled off in one big strip.  Very easy clean up.  But I had to start over - gggrrr! 
Using fine sandpaper, I went all over the glass scratching it up.  Although it didn't look like I had done much of anything.  The glass looked unharmed for the most part.  But I sprayed on the chalkboard paint anyway - NO PRIMER this time.  And you know what?   

It worked like a charm.  Here it is drying against the wall where I will hang it.  You can kinda see the bottom of a small picture frame I will be replacing with this large chalkboard.  Plus I redid the wire hangin' thingy so the chalkboard would hang the way I wanted.

Then I rub, rub rubbed the board with a sideways piece of chalk.  - - - you can kinda seem my aprons hanging on the door.  My favorite is the one with pink flowers and ruffles.

Now that the chalkboard is done, I can do away with all those tiny pieces of paper. 

 

 

What I learned - - -  the primer isn't necessary and I wish I would have left the pretty back on.  Not that it matters because only I know the backing isn't there.  Also, I need to wipe the board down with a wet cloth.  Although these pictures make it look difficult to read, in person it really looks fine. 

 

I'll definitely do this project again.  It was super easy.  It would be nice to have a super funky frame here, something really interesting.  Now that I know I can do this, I'll keep an eye out for the perfect frame.