Tuesday, February 15

Playroom Magnetic Chalkboard Tutorial

We completed a project last month that's been on the back burner for a LONG time. Yeah! Our kids now have a big magnetic chalkboard in their playroom. Perfect timing for my Kindergartner who loves to play school! Here she is christening the new chalkboard with a Monet-inspired garden scene:

My husband found a 24x48 inch piece of sheet metal at either Lowe's or Home Depot. I sprayed with abundant coats of chalkboard paint. Follow the directions on the can for priming and coats and temperature, etc. Home Depot carried one style of actual frame strips in their trim and molding department. I had intended to just screw the metal to the wall, then affix wood trim right to the wall also as a frame, but since our chalkboard isn't super big, this worked out better:

Measure and cut four pieces of framing trim for the sides and screw or wood glue together. You are welcome to "counter sink" your screws and fill in so they completely disappear, but I couldn't be bothered with fine details like that when I'm on task to GET IT DONE!  Ha! Anyway, they're hidden in the curve of the trim and it's just a playroom, right?  Next: Paint it. When dry, lay it upside down and insert the chalkboard. I used lightweight foam core as backing to completely fill the remaining depth. Then we [as in my hubby] hung it on the wall using 4 screws so it's super tight against the wall:

And there we have the playroom with new magnetic chalkboard as it looks this messy morning:

UPDATE: To see how I made my kids canvas photo art shown above the magnetic chalkboard, visit my previous post Kids' Wall Art.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Merci d'avoir un blog interessant

Anonymous said...

Sounds good, I like to read your blog, just added to my favorites ;)

MJ @ 517 Creations said...

Love this idea!! We painted our pantry door with chalkboard paint...my son loves to draw while I cook dinner!

I also love the photos above the chalkboard - are they mounted on painted canvases?? LOVE it!!

Anonymous said...

Thank you, nice job! This was the stuff I had to have.

Joy@TPMG said...

It looks amazing! I need to bookmark this for if we ever devote one room to our children's toys!

Anonymous said...

hi, new to the site, thanks.

Gordostyle said...

I love this project too! I'm also curious about the picture frames above the chalkboard. Did you make them? If so, mind sharing how? They are great and look so good with the chalkboard! :o)

jeanne @ Inspiring Ideas said...

Hi Ladies!
Thanks so much!! I made those kids' photo canvas a couple years ago and I posted a blog about them! So you can see how I made them here:

http://jeannewinters.blogspot.com/2008/09/kids-wall-art.html

As always - simple projects here! Enjoy!

Ronnica said...

It looks fun!

The Adventures of Ordy and Joon said...

I love this! I was so sad every home depot was out of magnetic paint for under my office chalkboard wall! I might have to find a frame and do this!!

my wall would have been SO much cooler if it was magnetic!! Imagine all the ideas I could just put up instead of pinning...*sigh*

http://ordyandjoon.blogspot.com/2011/02/yes-i-love-to-use-my-ellipses.html

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