Chalkboard paint is crack for crafty people

Chalkboard paint is like crack for crafty people.  Yep, go ahead and laugh at me.  Then go buy yourself a jar of it and see if you can resist!


I'm telling you, once you start painting things with chalkboard paint, your animal instincts take over and you realize you have no control over your body or mind, and all you can focus on is finding more items to paint.


I didn't know how addicting it was until I bought a can.  Seriously, it should come with a warning label, or at least a Mr. Yuck sticker.


You see, I had a whole project that I was excited to do and it required me to get a small amount of chalkboard paint.  Unfortunately the smallest can is like a quart or something, which was way too much for my project.


Are you dying to know what my project was?  If so, that could mean that you are also addicted to chalkboard paint, just FYI.


OK so remember when we moved in and promptly boarded up our windows? 

Hey neighbors, hope you like us, we are bringing your down property values

Well, turns out that our old windows were completely rotted, and when we went to get the frames rebuilt, the friendly glass people told us that our old windows were "not up to code"- like anything else is this house is??  Anyway, arguing about codes is a whole 'nother story.


So anyway, they had to make brand new frames and use brand new "tempered" glass in case I clumsily slipped on the wet bathroom floor and went head first toward the windows.  The tempered glass would save my life, or something like that.


If they were building me new windows, then I wanted my not-up-to-code-but extremely-adorable-old-windows back.  Chris gave me "the look" when I dragged the old rotted things back into our house.  It wasn't even worth explaining my crafty idea to him as he would have rolled his eyes and tuned me out at the first whisper of chalkboard paint.


So after nearly a month of the windows taking up residence on the floor of the office, I took them outside to create my masterpiece.  I wanted to make "to-do" boards for my sewing room (also known as the 3rd bedroom).


Here is my beautiful old window before I did anything too it.

The glass fogged up from the grass, before I realized I should put it on cardboard.

I removed all of the old hardware from the window and then used some sandpaper to even out the wood and paint.


Then I cracked open the crack paint.

I had to paint on a few coats until it covered all the glass without letting any light shine through.  I also got a little lazy and didn't tape, so I got a few smudges on the trim, but lucky for me, I had some trim paint on hand and just did a touch up.

Can't do a project without diet coke, glad it made the picture :)
Notice the tape is being useful holding my can, not actually protecting the trim

Then I coated the wood parts with fresh white paint all over the front and the sides to make it look new.  I thought about distressing the paint to make it a bit shabby chic, but then I got tired.


Here is the nearly-finished product:

See how the old hinge space make a great chalk holder?

I plan on mounting 3 small black and white photos, quotes or something else fun into the back of the small window panes, so they show through like picture frames. Then hanging it up on the wall in the sewing room.  I think I'll get a brightly colored handkerchief to be my eraser.


I also would love to add some fancy knobs to the bottom to use as hangers for ribbon and other crafty things, but I haven't got there yet.  I would love some cool knobs like the ones from Anthropologie.  If you have not "browsed" their knob section, I highly recommend it.  Watch out, it's more crack.

OK so when I finished the to-do board, I realized I still had 90% of my can of paint left.  I seriously went browsing through our house to see what else I could paint that Chris wouldn't be mad about.


I finally realized that my new planters on the back deck could really use some sprucing up.


I had planned on spray painting these with a bright color, but then got too excited and planted in them before I spray painted them.  Trust me, spray painting planters when they have dirt and seeds in them is not a good idea. So Chalkboard paint it is!


I taped off long rectangles and painted over them.  I peeled off the tape when the paint was still wet, to get a pretty perfect line.

When they were all dry I grabbed my chalk and wrote on them what I was growing inside:

The rain has not washed the chalk away yet....

This was my final project with the chalkboard paint.  But, I may or may not have already bought another pot for indoors that is in need of a good coat of chalkboard paint...