Go ahead, write on the walls

Cool product alert.  Have you wondered how to actually install a look like this? Is it a big board? Is it on a roll (like wallpaper?)?  Is it….hmmm…

{Image via Young House Love}

As you probably know, I’m working on a project that involves a local daycare playroom.  How fun, right? Right.    It’s been a great learning experience for me, and I am thankful for such enthusiastic and trusting clients.  So of course, we looked into a chalkboard wall for the kiddies.  And if you didn’t already know, it’s simply paint.  (You’re probably saying – duh! We already knew that!  Well…the folks at the hardware store didn’t have a clue to what I was talking about so you never know!!)  Anyway, you paint the chalkboard pigmented paint right on to the wall.  The pigments dry harder than normal paint, allowing for a good surface to write on and not damage, and can also be wiped clean.  You can find it in all sorts of colors, but I stuck with black for this project.  And we didn’t do an entire wall in chalkboard paint, we did a chair rail at about 45″ (so not technically a chair rail, but it worked with the mantle above the wood stove visually!) and painted the lower half of the entire room with chalkboard paint.  A dream come true for little ones, right?  I know Harper already loves to take stray pencils to my kitchen cabinets…

I love how they painted the top of the table in the packaging, too!  You’ll have to do some web searching to find different colors, but this black version is available at Ace Hardware.

And to step it up a notch, pair it with a magnetic primer under the chalkboard paint because what kids don’t love to play with magnets?  We only have 3 letters from Harper’s alphabet magnet set left on our fridge…the rest are probably underneath it.

But this way you can paint the magnetic latex primer right on the wall to make any surface magnetic. Just a word of caution stemming from experience – if you’re going to prime, prime the entire wall or section.  I.e. don’t just put this where you want a magnetic surface and leave other areas unprimed – you can see what parts have magnetic (or any) primer, and what areas don’t after you paint a top coating on!

Either way it still looks cool and works great!  Very excited to wrap this project up – not because I want to be done with it, but because I love to see an end result!  Hopefully I can share it with you within the next few weeks!  If I ever get online to blog…