Family MOTTO chalkboard DIY info

OH goodness..it’s FRIDAY!

And FRIDAY of a HOLIDAY weekend! Yipeeeeeee! I can already feel the sunshine…taste the watermelon…and feel SUMMER is on it’s way!!

I put up a teaser of my new family MOTTO chalkboard earlier this week and I wanted to take a minute to share how I made it!

I salvaged an old dry erase board at our local dump a few weeks back. Remember all my furniture finds ?? I found this board the same day!



I had full intentions of using it as a dry erase board. But after scrubbing and trying every chemical I could think of to clean it…the old writing just would not come off!
See what I mean….LOL!



Soooooo…I held on to the board and thought a few weeks about what I could do with it. I have been itching to do a chalkboard wall for awhile. But have you seen the price of chalkboard paint?? Then I found a recipe for homemade chalkboard paint…gulp…I was STOKED!
The recipe called for 1 cup of paint mixed with 2 Tablespoons of unsanded grout. That sounded easy enough!!

I knew I had about 3/4 of a gallon of black paint…and my parents had recently tiled their kitchen so surely they had grout left over!!
Yay!!

My Mom checked her grout…and it was sanded grout. Hmmmm…..I couldn’t help but wonder what the difference would be??? I decided to just go with it…what did I have to lose?? An old dry erase board wasn’t a BIG loss!!

So I made the mixture….Tiffany style. I used sanded grout…and my paint was semi-gloss. Lol…nothing like the original recipe.



The mixture was a little runnier than I anticipated…it’s really a weird texture. Maybe it was the sanded grout? And it stinks!!



First coat….



I ended up putting 3 coats on!! I let each layer dry completely before applying the next layer!
After it was GOOD and COVERED I primed it by rubbing a piece of chalk over the entire board. I have read that you are supposed to SAND it before this step. I was not in the mood for sand paper. LOL. Feel free to sand if you feel froggie!



After priming it…wipe it down with a damp cloth. Allow it to dry completely…and VIOLA…brand new CHALKBOARD!!!

I knew I wanted to put this MOTTO up in our house. And this board was DESTINED for our new family MOTTO.



I adore it!!!

A few notes:
♥I probably wouldn’t use a dry erase board for a HEAVY use chalkboard. Or maybe PRIME it before you paint it??? OR maybe FLAT paint with adhere better?? There were a few spots that pulled up when I was drawing on mine!!If you just want to use it as a decoration…then this is PERFECT!
♥The sanded grout works fine…but it is a little GRITTY. I don’t know how the unsanded texture would be…but it does work! I painted a little piece of a door in my laundry room to test it on a surface that wasn’t a dry erase board…and it works perfectly!
You know what my favorite part of this project was????
IT WAS F R E E !!!

My favorite PRICE!!!!

I love it…and it makes me smile every time I walk in my kitchen! IT’s GINORMOUS…and I love that! I’m seriously contemplating an entire chalkboard wall…I have enough paint and grout. Hmmm….oh and did you know you can do the chalkboard pain recipe with ANY COLOR??? Yeppers. I love the black…but any color works! How super cool!!

And ONE MORE thing!!!

I finally have a few FAMILY pictures of Jaxon and I. Finally. I was a little emotional doing the whole “single Mom” family pictures…but it was also empowering. We have survived almost a whole year…on our own…and guess what…we are doing better than ever.
God is so good.

He has blessed us…protected us…and prospered our lives in ways I could have never imagined. There really is a rainbow after every storm….and LIFE is beautiful!!






Hope you all have a SUPER DUPER weekend!! Wear SUNSCREEN!
XoXo