A Homemade Chalk Board

Lately, I have been neglecting my 101 in 1001 list, but this weekend I was able to complete another item.

(40) Find something to put on that bare wall in our dinning room)

We've lived in our current home for almost a year and our dinning room has been somewhat bare this whole time. We have a rather large wall that we struggled to decorate until my sister-in-law had a great idea that we totally went with. We decided to hang a black chalk board, much like ones used as menus in small restaurants, to go along with the french/country/bistro theme we think we like.

I did a little shopping online and found out that decorative chalk boards are not cheap. Pottery Barn had one for $150.00, which is just a little ridiculous, so we made our own! On Saturday morning, we headed to Lowe's to pick up our supplies.

• 3x4 inch piece of wood: $5.00 (There happened to be a piece of "scrap" hanging out by the wood cutting place and we were able to have it cut to the size we wanted and ended up paying less than half the original price)
• 1 qt of chalk board paint: $12.98
• 1 qt of water based primer: $5.98
• 2 foam brushes: $0.89 each
• 1 Package of wall anchors: $1.90

Total with tax: $29.26

Take that Pottery Barn!

After a very successful trip to Lowe's, (the people are just as helpful as they are on the commercials!) we began our project by applying a coat of primer to the wood.

Did you know primer was white? Apparently, I've never used primer before, because I was expecting it to be clear. Anyways, after we added a few more coats of primer, Matt filed the rough edges down.

Can I just say that I am so thankful for a husband who not only knows how to use tools but who is very meticulous too. I would have never thought about, known how to or had the patience to do this part.

Our next step was to add the black chalk paint and let it dry for 24 hours.

The next day, we hung the board using 6 screws and anchors. We then covered the screws with the paint and wa la! We had our chalk board!

My next task, which I thought would be easy, was to buy white chalk. I couldn't find it anywhere, so I settled for a box of colored chalk. When I got home, we finally got to do what we had been looking forward to during this whole project; Make an NCAA bracket, of course!

When all the "madness" is over, I plan on finding fun quotes and verses to write on the board. We're pretty excited about our homemade chalk board and how our dinning room is starting to come together.