Inspired by Myra & Jim’s family chalkboard (a giant one, right between the kitchen & the living room) I finally got around to making my own. Hey, I only spent a month with a can of chalkboard paint and a frame sitting leaning up against the bookcase, so that’s good, right? After we finished, I felt silly because it seriously took an hour & looks great. Once we got the huge bookcases, we realized we needed something really huge for the blank wall, and why not something utilitarian?
1. Find a frame. This had a hideous warped printed painting in it, and when we went to pay for it at the thrift store, they told us to just take it.
2. Make a nice person hold the frame straight while you trace the inside edge.
3. Three or four coats of chalkboard paint should do it.
4. Screw that baby into the wall. I painted the frame a little with the chalkboard paint, but I wanted to keep the chipped feel. I think having a matte black frame would look excellent too.
5. Make lists. House list and Hitch list. Yes, I still need to make my dress. But Angeliska is here this week! We’ve already eaten so much cake! Oh dear. & I’m hiding the House list until after the wedding.
Goodness, that’s so simple, so striking and so bloody effective. I’m swooning over that little corner of your house.
I have been dying to find a use for chalkboard paint ever since I heard of the stuff. I love your idea of framing a portion of a wall, instead of doing the whole thing. Once my furniture arrives here, I think I’m going to try to tackle my own framed chalkboard wall. Thank you for being inspiring yet again!
i painted an entire wall in my kitchen with blackboard paint in my last apartment in brooklyn – it was THE ONLY time in my life i stayed completely and totally organized. having everything there in my face every morning in huge letters was like the key to a level of togetherness that i had never been able to achieve before. i really need to do it again but i can’t decide on the right space in this house.
yours is so lovely with that frame!
i hope you and angel are having fun times…xo
I really do need things in my face. If I write lists online or in books I just NEVER remember to look at them.
p.s. on the hitch list – SOCKS!
socks are nice to have!! not for me, for him!
Wow, it looks really nice! I love the idea!
I am so nosy! I cannot help it. I love it when people post photos of the interesting corners of their houses, I just love little peeps at things like that. Have to blow them up to see all the details.
Of course, no matter how large I make the image, my eyesight is still terrible! I read that on the hitched side as “finish Inuits”. Hee!
…and is the last item on your house list…something about a “beard”??
See what I mean? Nosy, nosy!
Seriously though, what a supergreat, gorgeous AND practical idea.
Yes, we’ve decided to have Inuit cake toppers. Nooooo. We have 3 invites left to seal with sealing wax and I have NO IDEA where I left the wax stick and the seal! Maddening.
House list:
Upholster chair
I have no idea (ummm, seriously? this is why I HAVE to write shit down)
Headboard
yeah, i am the same way. no matter how religious i try to be with my moleskins, they always end up with chunks of blank months at the end of the year (if i don’t actually misplace them first, ha) and i have so many online lists – teuxdeux, igoogle widget things, post-it’s… i am even still in the habit of making and saving notes in text edit all over my desktop. i am like some kind of list hoarder. the chalkboard ended up working like a big mind map that was burned into my consciousness.
i really like that. it looks awesome next to the bookcases. score on the wonky frame!
Yay chalkboard paint! We just spent the weekend painting pieces of masonite with chalkboard paint and securing them in second-hand frames to use for the wedding (listing the dinner and bar menus, for example). I like them so much that we may repurpose them as wall-reminders like you did here! Yours looks awesome, by the way. I like how you put some of the paint right on the frame to give it that built-in feel.
That looks fabulous! Love the frame. I had a similar project, but with corkboard… it looks great, and it was practically free.
Oh, awesome! Chalkboard paint is an amazing invention. I still can’t believe it actually exists. Yours is just lovely! I love the shape and frame.
yes! clever, bold and so useful. i too like having something i am confronted with on a daily basis besides mess of course. the giant chalkboard (mine is one from a pub my grandfather owned) is why i know that kaloba is excellent for a cold. (had it written on there for months!)
I LOVE this! It’s beautiful…and so handy!