One (wo)man's junk...

My friend, Jules, is, first of all, extremely beautiful and lovely to look at. Just had to put that out there. She's also happily married. Sorry boys.

Jules gets a great amount of pleasure in throwing things out. So, with the recent renos in her gorgeous house, she was on the warpath to chuck, chuck, chuck.

I was discussing my newest idea with Jules, which involved a nice old frame. I was mad because the local thrift stores were charging way more than I wanted to pay for a used frame that I was going to spray paint anyway.

Well, the stars were aligned, and Jules brought me up this bad boy, which she'd intended to throw out the day before and had forgotten.. and welcome to:

Chalkboard art in your home! :)

 Beautiful!

TheGuy and I went out the following weekend and picked up some pressed-board, or something like that. You know.. the stuff that ikea uses for the back of cabinets. It had a smooth surface and it was cheap, cheap, cheap ($12 for a sheet so big, it wouldn't fit in the car. We used about 1/4 of it for this project).

I happen to be an incredibly lucky individual with a very handy husband, who could see how excited I was about this project and took care of it while I was at work. What a great husband. He sent me these pictures:

He removed the painting from the frame and sprayed it a high gloss white. 2 coats.

Then he trimmed the pressboard and used chalkboard spray paint on it. 3 coats.

Then, he put it all back together for me, and we let it cure for three days.

We had stew for dinner that night. Holla.

Every time I walked by it, I got more and more excited. TheGuy does finish work for a living, and it just looked so beautiful and promising!

Then, I covered the entire surface of the chalkboard with chalk in order to 'prep' it. Since there are pores in the chalkboard, you want to prep it like this, otherwise the first thing you draw will stay in those pores and you'll have a ghost-like image of that first drawing forever, and that's just not cool.

And then I got my draw on! I didn't want to make a chalkboard that had our shopping lists on it, or things to do. I wanted to create a piece of art which could be changed whenever I felt like it. And! I already knew what I was going to do - I'd figured it out on the car ride home when we'd gotten the press board (which was very cold, since the hatchback was open to allow for its size). So I got my chalk on. And let me tell you, those famous chalk artists, they make it look easy. I don't know whether I had cheap chalk, or what it was, but it was a challenge. I look at it as a learning experience, and I'm stoked for the next time!

So, voila!

 For a much better tutorial on how to make a chalkboard, visit The Art of Doing Stuff.

Ciao!