When I first saw that post, I was extremely interested. I have had this thing with chalkboard paint ever since I first saw the chalkboard refrigerator on Good Luck Charlie (no, I don't have kids, don't judge, it's a cute show!). Make my own chalkboard? How exciting! A good place to begin. A framed chalkboard.
At the same time, I was getting ready to move. I have more than one set of magnetic poetry that I insist on putting up even though it hardly gets used. But it is a pain in the butt to put up and take back down. So I thought, "Wouldn't it be great if I had a piece of metal framed that could hold some of the words?"
Light bulb went off. What if it was magnetic AND a chalkboard?? I had 2 ideas... painting wood with paint that would make it magnetic and then a layer of chalkboard paint OR paint a piece of metal with chalkboard paint.
Since the reviews for magnetic paint made me less than confident about my first idea, I wanted to try the second.
I found a framed painting at Saver's (a thrift store). The frame was pretty much what I had in mind and it was only $3. I didn't manage to get a picture of the art. It was dolphins swimming. It looked like a 10 year old did it. I took the painting out and took it to Goodwill (MAYBE someone will want it??). This is the frame pre-paint:
I really just noticed now that those are pictures of dogs that my cat is ferociously attacking.
Anyway. After I found the frame, I took a trip to a home improvement store to see what my options were. After I spoke to a very-unhelpful associate, I managed to find the smallest piece of sheet metal that would still fit in the frame. And a pair of tin snips. I probably could have borrowed those, but I didn't want to tell anyone my idea for fear it would be stolen or I would be made fun of. Maybe I'll find another use for the tin snips some day.
I had already purchased the chalkboard paint. It was on sale at Michael's (or I had a coupon... I don't buy things at Michael's full price unless I absolutely need it). However. Then something great came along... LivingSocial had a chalkboard wall decal for sale. Six feet long and could be cut to any size. Without hesitation, I bought it. Imagine the possibilities! And it's removable!
So about five months after I purchased the frame, metal, and tin snips and about two months after I purchased the chalkboard decal, I got to work.
That paint is supposed to be red. It is CraftSmart "Wash Away" paint from Michael's. I chose wash away paint because it was the only paint I had that size. I do have other colors, but I thought red would be a good one. Well, pink works too.
Ignore the white lines... That's my attempt at blurring. I only used one layer of paint, because I didn't want it to have a crisp, clean look. It's a chalkboard. They aren't generally crisp and clean. So I hid that from the cat while it dried.
She managed to get a little paint on her anyway. Oh well, it's non-toxic.
This was a lot of work. The tin snips I bought were the cheapest they had, so it took a lot of work. And metal doesn't cut the same way paper does. Paper is flimsy. Metal is not. So it took a lot of bending. I drew lines with a permanent marker so I'd know where to cut. I wasn't too concerned with how it looked because it would be covered and in a frame.
The decal was easy. I cut it slightly bigger, just to make sure it was the right size. It removes easily, so even though it took a couple tries to get it lined up right, it wasn't a big deal. Getting it in the frame was a little trickier than I thought.
There are only 4 brackets on the frame. I needed to fill in the gap between the bracket and the sheet metal.
Done! I've since added a lot more of the poetry, but I wanted to see how well it worked and it works great!
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