I have been looking for ways to make our school time a bit more efficient. I wasn’t sure what exactly I would do to make it so, but I was looking for idea anyway. Then I came across a post, quite by accident, that talked about making your own chalkboard. And I thought, “Hey! That would be very useful!”. There are many times that I need to demonstrate a particular math problem to one of the girls (and now that will included Isaac), someone is often asking me what the date is, there are times I should diagram a sentence for someone, or there are words to write for them (like when they are learning to read) to help them get a concept. I’ve always done it on paper, but I thought a chalkboard would be even more helpful.
The trick is, chalkboards are not cheap. And I didn’t want to use black or the typical green chalkboard paint. Plus, my brother-in-law has used the chalkboard paint that you buy at the store and said it didn’t work all that great. So when I also came across a recipe for it, I was thrilled!! And it’s really easy and it truly does work.
Chalkboard paint:
1 cup of latex paint of your choice
2 TB of white un-sanded tile grout
150 grit (or finer) sand paper
Directions:
* Mix your desired amount of paint with the grout (they say 1 cup of paint is enough to paint a panel on a door.). Mix very well to get any and all clumps out.
* Paint your surface, making sure to coat every bit of it very well.
* Lightly sand between coats.
* Paint at least 2 coats, more if you think necessary.
I wanted to make it right away, but Adam convinced me I decided to try something a little smaller first, to make sure it works. We had an old piece of ply wood that had been sitting on the back porch for awhile. This really wasn’t a great piece to start off with, but it’s what we had. And we didn’t have un-sanded tile grout only the sanded kind. But I tried it anyway. It didn’t come out very well, so I strongly suggest you follow the directions. They say un-sanded for a reason. :0)
The next time I went into Rhinelander, I bought a 10lb bag of white un-sanded tile grout. This worked much better! I had first thought of making two small chalkboards and putting them on the wall for the young children to draw on while we are doing school. But then I saw an idea to make a chalkboard table and I liked that idea better. We bought a coffee table for $3 at a garage sale on Friday, so this was my next attempt. It is low to the ground, so there is no need for chairs (which would take up too much room in our school room anyway).
I sanded it do
wn first, to get the finish off of it (without the little guys on it, of course!). Otherwise, my paint would not stick to it.
Then I started painting it. Adam was real sad that I painted the whole thing, since he’s not real keen on painted tables. But I thought it would look real funny to have a painted top and a natural look for the legs. And since I was in charge of this project, not to mention the one doing it all, the paint went on. I painted the bottom in regular paint. I didn’t see any reason to paint the legs with the chalkboard paint. I wa
s going to to the whole table in one color, but then I though it would look even better if I put multiple colors on the top. I took a bit longer than it would have if I had done only one color, but I am very happy with the result!
I think the natives are too. What do you think?
Of course, the inevitable happened. But lucky for Nathaniel, his big sister was there to force help him down!
