The Wall

One of the bonuses of having Chris around for all of my DIY projects (besides the fact that he is super handy) is how supportive he is about my design decisions.



We've already determined a while ago that we have very different tastes.  He likes having dead things hanging on his walls; I have a giant painting of a flower on mine. He wants a bathroom completely made out of marble; I think bright yellow paint is a totally acceptable alternative. He has a mancave; I'm planning out a craft room. See? We're a bit different.

Despite our differences, he has encouraged me to do things to my preference.  On multiple occasions, he has reassured me I can do whatever I want, since it's my house.

So this week I did.

And Tuesday night was the first time I believe I've made him question my sanity when it comes to making design decisions (he has questioned my overall sanity before, but that's another story).

"You painted your wall black? Okay sweetie..."

Is chalkboard black to be more specific.

Hear me out.  I've had my sights set on a chalkboard at TJ Maxx for a while now, but it was $50. Even though it was super cute, I couldn't bring myself to buy it. So I decided to explore the magical land of Pinterest for inspiration.

Bad idea.

I completely fell in love with the painted wall concept.  So I went for it.

The can of paint was $9.98 for the quart, and I forgot what paint supplies I still had left, so I picked up some (unneeded) extras.

It only took two coats to cover the wall, and I still have about a third of the quart leftover.

Thanks to Pinterest, I also used some tips to make sure the wall was prepped correctly.

I used a piece of white sidewalk chalk to "season" the wall. (Again, we're all going to be nice and ignore the clutter in the picture.) This is supposed to help prevent difficulty erasing things in the future.

As you can tell, there is still some texture to the wall, so it's not as smooth as a real slate chalkboard.

After I rubbed the wall down,  I used a magic eraser (another tip via Pinterest) to wipe it off. I did it first with the eraser dry, then went back over with it wet.  I thought I did a pretty good job,  but it still looked streaky after it dried.

I'm too impatient to deal with those types of things,  so I just moved on to the next step.

I really wanted to just jump right in, so I did minimal planning on where things were going to go. I made a post-it note of the autumn phrases I wanted to include, and had a few ideas of the typography styles I wanted to use.

I drew out the general location and spacing of where I wanted everything to be with the intention of going back and "prettifying" each phrase later. This game plan made me feel less awful when I realized I initially spelled PUPKIN. Oops!  At least I'm going back to fix everything!

The final step was the most time consuming part. I went through and diligently made sure every word looked perfect.

Even with water, erasing mistakes was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Some spots stayed streaky, but I decided to not worry too much about them.  They weren't as noticeable from far away.

Unfortunately,  I did have to whip out the vacuum when I was all done, because the project produced quite a bit of chalk residue on my carpet.

Totally worth it. I LOOOOOVE the finished product and I can't wait to switch it up for the next season!

And in case you were wondering, despite his initial reaction, Chris actually was very supportive of the project. He went out and bought me a new outlet and cover for the wall the very next day.

He thought the white stood out too much and suggested switching it to black. He wanted something that would blend in a lot better, and I couldn't be happier about the updated look. :)