This North Carolina Parent Made a DIY Chalk Wall for Her Family for Around $100
Displaying your kids’ artwork takes many forms. For starters, you could organize and store their colorful creations or turn their pieces into bespoke wallpaper. But what if there was a simple way to have fresh artwork exhibited in your home without needing to organize or pull out the tape.
If your interest is piqued, you’re in the right place. Founder and writer of the blog Design Addict Mom, Stacey-Ann Blake, who owns a colorful Jamaican-inspired home in North Carolina, created a DIY chalkboard wall as a place to cultivate creativity and honor traditions.
Her husband, Andre, draws a chalk illustration on the wall every holiday season and her daughter, Cheyenne, illustrates characters from her favorite books. Because of all the magic the chalk wall brings to their home, it’s fair to assume that the project took a lot of effort and was expensive.
However, the project was low effort (just adding some paint!) and cost around $100. Here’s how Blake created this imaginative space for her family.
How To Create a Chalkboard Wall
Creating a chalkboard wall to display your kids’ (or adult family members’ and friends’) drawings is super simple. Start by painting your desired wall with chalkboard paint — Blake used Rust-Oleum’s version. Your wall might require two coats (and you’ll want to wait at least 24 hours in between painting sessions to ensure the wall is dry).
The next — and most important — step is seasoning the wall. Seasoning is important, according to Blake, because it allows the chalk to go on smoothly and ensures that you won’t see faint outlines of previous drawings (which is called ‘ghosting’ or ‘shadowing’.) Here’s how to season a chalkboard wall:
- Wait until the chalkboard wall paint has completely dried.
- Take a piece of chalk (on its side rather than tip) and rub it vertically along the entire chalkboard wall.
- Using the same side of the chalk piece, rub it along the chalkboard wall horizontally.
- Remove the chalk with a rag or chalkboard brush.
- Enjoy your chalkboard wall!
This isn’t Blake’s first rodeo when it comes to chalkboard walls. Originally, she created a chalkboard wall in her kids’ playroom, but then decided to wallpaper over it. However, it was so important to her family that she knew she had to find another space for it: she landed on the bonus room because of its big walls. To tie the space together, she painted the surrounding walls in Benjamin Moore’s Soot.
And the chalkboard wall isn’t the only sentimental design aspect in Blake’s home. She also installed a map mural in her sons’ bedroom to track their dad while he was deployed in the military. To learn more about their colorful, family-oriented home visit the full house tour on Apartment Therapy.