DIY Chalkboards

I stumbled upon this amazing website, Fellow Creatives, and found this great idea to turn old picture frames - or, really anything with a flat surface - into a chalkboard. A friend of mine has a chalkboard made out of a silver platter, and I have always thought that was such a great idea; but it never dawned on me to use an old picture frame. I totally had one of those "why the heck didn't I think of this before" moments.

I picked up this picture at a rummage sale for $2 about 6 months ago. 

If you haven't already figured it out, I have a bad habit of buying things with good intentions of turning them into something spectacular, and taking my sweet time to follow through. I did the same thing to what are now our dining room chairs - it only took me about 8 months to finish them (to be fair, they were in need of a lot of work, and there were other extenuating circumstances). 

At the time I bought it, I thought it was a neat picture, and planned on hanging it up somewhere. Then, buyer's remorse set in, and for months I would look at this and say "What was I thinking? I have no use for this." 

Anywho, I taped it off and put paper around the edges to protect the wood. Picked up a bottle of Chalkboard Spray Paint, and finally turned it into something useful.

Ta Da! 

I decided to paint/de-stress the wood so it would match my dining room chairs (I'll have to post a picture of those - I love how they turned out), since it will be hanging near them. 

A couple tips:

1) Paint the frame first, then spray on the chalkboard paint.

Fellow Creatives suggests doing this the other way around, and I found it to be more difficult to paint the frame. I ended up having to add a second coat of chalkboard paint, and that didn't work out too well. Which leads too....

2) If you have to add a second coat of chalkboard paint, make sure the surface is completely clean of any small pieces. 

You would think this goes without saying, but I thought my surface was "clean enough," and ended up messing up 3 sides of the outer portion of the glass. You can't tell by this picture, or if you are standing far away; but if you get up close you can tell where I had to wipe the paint away and start over. 

P.S. The bench that the chalkboard is sitting on, is also a rummage sale find. Picked it up for $10, and just reupholstered it with some fabric I found on clearance at Calico Corners.