How To Make A Chalkboard

Good news for those who love to learn and teach. Now the joy of drawing with chalk on a blackboard is available at home! All that you need to do is to find a suitable surface and paint it with special paint. Then take the chalk and enjoy yourself! If you don’t like the chalky dust, use modern chalk markers, they are bright and very pleasant to draw with. You can paint a wall, a table or any wooden board.

To make a chalkboard we will need:

• a surface for painting (old board, wood, wall, etc.);
• acrylic chalkboard paint, black, 236 ml;
• flat brush, roller or sponge;
• grinder or sandpaper.

1. Base for painting

We have an old children’s chalkboard. We decided to refresh it using special paint. It’s a water-based paint, it isn’t toxic and can be applied in the children’s room. This paint is designed for decoration and creation of surfaces to write with chalk on. The paint can be applied on wood, papier-mâché, ceramics, canvas and other porous surfaces.

2. Surface defects

Our blackboard’s surface got scratched, bubbled and went holes. It’s not pleasant to draw on. Before applying on the board a fresh coat of special black paint, we need to make its surface even. We tried to do it using coarse sandpaper and sponges, but we did not succeed.

3. Grinding the surface

We took out of the garage a real grinding machine and set to work. First, we used coarse sandpaper and finished with a finer one. 10 minutes of hard female labor, and we got the ideally even surface! Now we dust off our surface, wipe it with a wet rug and dry it.

4. Applying black paint

We start with covering all wooden elements of our board with masking tape to protect them from paint. As we had no paint roller, we applied paint using a sponge. To leave no traces of paint application, we smeared the board with the sponge in circular motion. We applied one coat then let the paint dry and applied the second coat.

5. Green paint

Our school boards have a compartment for chalk. We decided to paint it green instead of bright red. We took another paint: Acrylic chalkboard paint, color green, 236 ml. This time we applied the paint with a brush. We applied two coats trying to make them even.