Saturday, June 22, 2013

Chalkboard door

I wanted walk-in access to our attic, so we added a door in my youngest son's room into the attic space. After looking at insulated doors and their prices, I knew I didn't want to spend the money to get an insulated door that would match the rest of the interior doors (or should I say closely match- there were no doors that matched exactly).
So instead, I decided to get the cheapest primed metal insulated door with the plan to make it a fun focal point in the room instead of a what-the-heck-is-a-door-doing-there eyesore.
We installed the door, I painted the trim and the perimeter of the door in latex white paint to match the trim and doors throughout the house. Then I painted the center with black chalkboard paint. It looked too boring, so I added some high-gloss latex cobalt blue paint that I had leftover from a different project....still boring, and the dark blue matched the black too closely.... so then, I  handpainted a apple green stripe around the outside of the chalk paint using good old acrylic craft paint. Perfect!
After the chalk paint had cured for a few weeks (I don't think you have to wait that long, read the can to find out actually curing time) I seasoned the chalkboard by rubbing it all over with the side of a white piece of chalk. Last, I rubbed all the chalk off- this keeps the chalk marks from leaving permanent marks.
I've claimed the top of the chalkboard. Wes colored the bottom with art- his first creation he deemed a "rainbow, Christmas-tree, mountain." Love it!

Oh, and one last thing. Because the door is metal I used an old magnetic locker pencil holder to hold the chalk, and we can also play with magnets on the door! Bonus!

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