Been a while since one of these makeover posts! I've been lusting after a chalkboard for a while now after seeing lots on Pinterest and various Instagram accounts. I'm such a list making person, my phone is littered with notes on various things to remember so I figured it would be both decorative and functional to remind me what we've run out of or anything of importance. I actually bought a board online, not wanting to ruin the walls, but it was too small and then too much effort to send back and reorder, plus we'd bought a tin of chalkboard paint last year that was just waiting for a project to come about! A DIY guide and some tips that we found if you're thinking of making your own... 

Before:

The wall had always been quite plain in the kitchen, it used to have some of our Engagement shoot photos framed which I liked, but wanted something a bit different and felt the space could take something bolder. 

We'd bought the chalkboard paint last year for some projects but never got round to using it, it was from Aldi on one of their special buys and is quick drying and water based. A lot of chalkboard paint is oil based which will take a lot longer to dry and stink! Plus it's a lot harder to get off of your clothes, hands and if you spill any. So try and look out for the water based paint. 

You can see the blackboard that I'd ordered in the photo above, it wasn't big enough for the space and originally I was too chicken to just paint the black paint straight onto the wall. What if it went wrong?! How could we paint over it? But I text Phoebe, as we do nearly all do everyday, who told me that she'd painted over it before using an undercoat so we decided to go for it. I got Ben on the case, if I'd have done it it would be completely wonky and patchy! First of all we had to fill in the hole where we'd taken the picture down. And you want to make sure you have a really smooth, clean wall, we didn't need to sand ours luckily. 

  

We then measured out the area, using a tape measure to centre the middle of it on the middle of the wall so we had an equal sized gap on both sides. And then marked it out with masking tape, using a spirit level to check the masking tape was level.

We painted the blackboard paint using a mini roller set, it took three coats in the end. 

We did the coats over three days, but crucially make sure you remove the masking tape quickly after you've painted each coat. If it dries it can pull the paint off. So we painted one coat, took the masking tape off, let it dry, retaped, painted, tape off etc. We gave it a very light sanding after the first coat as you could see the filled hole still. And half way through I decided it still needed to be a bit bigger! So we extended it. 

Ours was quick drying which helped, but if yours takes longer, don't rush it as otherwise the particles of the paint that work with the chalk will separate. 

After the three coats, it was looking good. But before you can write on it you need to season it. I only found this out by googling DIY chalk boards, I thought it would just be ready to go. If you don't season it then the time you use chalk on it to write something/draw something it will 'burn' into the board and stay visible when you rub it out. The paint is porous so it soaks in the chalk. So before you use it, take a piece of chalk on its side and rub it all the way up and down the board and then go across the board. 

Once you've covered the board in chalk, rub it all out using a chalkboard rubber or a cloth and finally it's ready to use!

I've just got regular chalk but I might get some liquid chalk. I want to use it for seasonal messages and lists but also treat it as a piece of artwork I guess. I've bought some pretty washi tape to tape photos etc on to it. I just hope it doesn't damage the paint, watch this space!