Hello lovely readers! I want to show you a super simple DIY project that I recently did. I started with a Calendar Holder that I found at a garage sale and made it into a pretty Chalkboard.
The price sticker said $2.00, but I asked if they would take $1.00 for it, and they did. Score! My husband gets a little embarassed about asking garage salers to lower prices, but I just keep in mind that the whole reason they're having a garage sale is that they Want To Get Rid of Stuff! Am I right?
I mean really, do they want to haul this stuff back into the garage/storage/goodwill, or do they want to get $1.00 for it and never see it again? See??
When I saw it, I knew just what I was going to do with it. We've been needing some kind of memo board for our kitchen, and I could see the diamond in the rough here.
It needed just a little prep work. I started by pulling out these staples to remove the center board. There were a gazillion of them, I swear.
I dug through carefully looked into my husband's tool box and came up with these handy tools for pulling out those stubborn staples.
I painted the frame with left over green paint that I used in our hall. (And by the way, if you have any suggestions for concealing that obnoxious white doorbell box, I would gladly receive them.) You can see the paint color here:
I like to use little sponge brushes for small projects like this. They're cheap, and hey, if I don't have to clean up a paint brush afterwards, I'm happy.
Now, this is where I confuse you. Because in my haste to finish this, I completely forgot to take photos of the Chalkboard Paint process. -doh! That board above that I was removing all the staples from? After removing it I just laid it on some newspapers in the garage, with the garage door open of course. (Come to think of it, maybe it was the fumes getting to me that made me forget to shoot photos....hummm... But I digress)
I purchased a can of Chalkboard Spray Paint - yes, there is such a thing! And gave it about 5 coats. This was raw wood, so if you have a surface that has paint or primer already on it, you may not need as many coats. I wanted to make sure it was covered really well. Just be sure to let it dry about an hour in between coats.
I let everything dry for 24 hours before putting it all back together.
Here it is finished and hung at the entrance to our kitchen.
I love that little trim detail at the top of it. The paint really emphasizes it.
To the right, in the photo below, you can see a mirror that I painted with the same paint. It previously was really dark with grapes and grape leaves painted on it. I love it so much more painted green!
Although garage sale season is winding down, you can still shop thrift stores. Just try to keep your mind open to new uses for old things! It's very satisfying to turn something unwanted by someone else, into something that we totally needed and will enjoy!
Cost for this project was $5.98:
Calendar holder $1.00
Green paint $0 I used leftover paint
Chalkboard Spray Paint $4.98
*Linking up here:
Funky Junk Saturday Nite Special
