Chalkboard wall

It's amazing how a fresh coat of paint can breathe new life into an area.  This is especially true if that paint happens to be of the chalkboard variety.  We have a small section of wall that sits right behind our main table in the house that, to be perfectly honest, had seen better days.  I wanted to repaint and change things up a bit and chalkboard seemed like the perfect answer.  We spend a lot of time in this little room, it is easily the most used space in the house even though it is the smallest.  We eat here, craft here, play here, and so it only seemed right that we'd want to create murals here too.  

The process couldn't have been easier.  A small can of paint, a foam roller, and a couple of hours alone.  Okay, the time alone can be difficult to find but I just happened to tackle this project while the girls away on a visit to Grandma's house earlier this year and simply hadn't shared it until now.  While they would have been perfectly happy (and capable of) helping, I wanted to do this as a fun surprise for them to come home to.  

It's become sort of an unplanned tradition for us.  The first thing they do when they come home from Grandma's is search for any surprises I might have left for them.  Sometimes it's a new decoration in their room, a new toy hidden within their favorites, and sometimes it's a giant chalkboard.  I will say though that this surprise took them the longest amount of time to discover.  Silly things.  

I didn't use any primer on the wall, I simply went right to it with the chalkboard paint and I'm happy to say that my impatience paid off and it is working perfectly fine.  I didn't even have to worry about conditioning the wall, the girls very kindly took care of that task for me.  We have had so much fun with this wall and everyone who comes by for a visit likes to take a turn adding a bit of art to the wall.  

I will caution you a bit if you're thinking of adding a chalkboard wall somewhere in your home...if you're the type that will be bothered by chalk dust all over your baseboards and floor this might not be the project for you.  A giant chalkboard outside would be a great way to avoid that issue, but honestly we aren't bothered by it.  We just wipe down the baseboard and vacuum whenever we wipe down the wall and that has worked for us so far.