How To Make A Chalkboard For Your Home

Home goods, art outlets and even home improvement shops are all promoting the latest functional decoration: the kitchen's blackboard. Open a home organizing magazine or peruse through a home decorations blog site and you 're bound to see these custom made items hanging from wall.

But they don't come cheap. To avoid the retail mark-up, you can make your own kitchen chalkboard. You'll need a several low-cost materials. Before you know it, you'll have a custom made chalkboard for a fraction of the store price.

What You'll Need:

1 Ceramic floor tile

1 Bottle trisodium phosphate (TSP)

1 Bucket

1 Sponge

1 Can paint thinner or mineral spirits

1 Can chalkboard paint

1 Foam paintbrush

1 Chalk stick

1 Rag

Acrylic paints

Artist paintbrushes

Pre-carved wood letters

Fine-grit sandpaper

Thumbtacks

1 Tube E6000 multipurpose adhesive

Hanger

Place your materials in a well-ventilated area where dripping paint won't be a problem. A garage or shed will make a nice place to create your masterpiece. You might want to cover a table or workbench with a drop cloth or old sheet to avoid making too big a mess.

1) Place the ceramic tile on a flat surface.

2) Combine 1 part TSP with 3 parts water in a bucket.

3) Submerge a sponge in the bucket, then clean the ceramic tile thoroughly. Rinse the tile with plain water and let air dry.

4) Rinse out the bucket and pour paint thinner or mineral spirits into the bucket. You will use this to clean paintbrushes later.

5) Open a can of chalkboard paint and paint over the ceramic tile in one direction using a foam paintbrush. Let the paint dry about 60 minutes, then paint it again, going in the opposite direction.

6) Allow the second coat of paint to dry for another hour. Apply a third coat of chalkboard paint going in the same direction as the first coat.

7) Wait 60 to 90 minutes for the last coat to dry.

8) Season your kitchen chalkboard by rubbing a stick of chalk over it several times. Wipe the chackboard clean with a rag thereafter.

Now that you have a kitchen chalkboard, you'll need to add some embellishments. You can use pre-carved wood letters to spell whatever you like. You can spell "EATS", "Chef's List" or anything else you'd like.

To finish your kitchen chalkboard follow these steps:

9) Paint each letter a different color with acrylic paint using an artist paintbrush. Let the paint dry.

10) Soak you paintbrushes in the paint thinner or mineral spirits.

11) Gently abrade each letter with fine-grit sandpaper to make them look rustic.

12) Push some thumbtacks into each letter.

13) Glue the letters to your chalkboard using E6000 multipurpose adhesive.

14) Glue a hanger to the back using more E6000 multipurpose adhesive. Allow the glue to dry completely, then hang your custom made chalkboard.

If you want to make the letters look antiqued, simply dry-brush the letters with slate or flat gray paint. Dry-brushing is done by dipping a paintbrush into the paint and tapping off as much paint as possible, then gently brush over your letters. Wait for the paint to dry, then add thumbtacks to the letters before gluing them to the chalkboard.

That's it! With just a few items and some materials you can pick up at any craft store, you have a fully functional, custom made kitchen chalkboards.

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