DIY_chalk board

Alright, back to the blog. I've decided over the next few weeks to follow up the room tour with some DIY room enhancements. So today, I'm going to show you how I created my Chalk board. Disclaimer: I did not come up with this idea. I'm pretty sure it's on Pinterest (you can see my account here).
Let us begin.
To start this project you will need:

• a tray (dollar tree has some)
• Chalkboard paint
• paint brushes
• wire
• Hot glue gun (with glue)
• razor blade or painters tape

      To begin, you will need to apply a thin layer of chalk board pain onto the tray. (It will not look good the first few coats. It's a fact.) 

This is after 3 coats

     

      At this point, you need to decide how much of the tray you want to cover with the chalk board paint. The first one I made, I just painted the center of the tray. The second one I made, I painted the tray all the way up the sides (unfortunately that was a Christmas present for someone and I gave it away before I got a photo). If you choose to only paint the center, you may want to add tape to block off the restricted areas of the tray. On one, I tried removing the paint after it had dried with a razor blade, it did work but it was time consuming and didn't look the best. If you don't want to use tape or a razor, then I suggest wiping off all unwanted paint when its still dry!

Here's an example of the lumpy paint. Avoid this

     Then let that dry and add another coat. Then let that dry and add another coat. If you still aren't happy with how it looks (and the first one I made I wasn't satisfied) add one more coat. You don't want any of the tin showing through, and you want the surface to be as flat as possible without ridges and lumps. 

     That's basically it. Very simple and so cute! If you are planning on hanging it up, wire works great! Just fasten it with some hot glue and you're good to go! This wire worked great, but so does picture hanging wire. You just want to make sure that its not too small or too big to slip away from the glue.


Some things to remember:
-Before you write anything on the chalk board, Go over the entire surface using the side of the chalk. If you don't, the first thing you write will stay imprinted.
-Don't use water on your new chalk
-You don't have to use black chalkboard paint (you can buy all sorts of colors)
 

Enjoy!