How-to-make-a-chalkboard

Chalk up another great weekend!

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Let me paint you a picture on my  CHALKBOARD.  Picture this…….Family comes to visit, where do we all end up?  The kitchen! No matter how hard I try to get them to move to the living room, set around the dining table, they gather in the kitchen.  I actually love it, this is what always happened and still happens at my parents house too, except for when it is time to do the dishes!

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In our old house, the kitchen was a very small 10×10 space………..yup!  We gathered there too!  I have memories of my kids laying on the heated floor, or sitting on the counters, hanging out and chatting while I cooked dinner.  I love those memories from that great old house. 

In our new home, we have a much larger kitchen…………..good thing, because when the kids come home now, they bring their kids and spouses!  I love a full house with lots of “busy” and kitchen chatter!

When we moved into our house on Lyndale Drive there was on huge wall (a blank canvas) just waiting for something great!   Sorry I don’t have a better picture, but you can see the wall…….way in the back, by the frig!

I had pinned all kinds of cool ideas for awesome shelving on this wall…..but if you have ever met my husband Mike, he is my version of a bull in a china shop!  That man could (and has) knocked a piece of paper off a wall!  Nothing is safe with him around, so the shelving idea was not an option! I also knew that our family would continue to grow and that the kitchen would always be “family central” so I wanted to make it fun place for the grand kids!
My idea started with a piece of window trim that I found at a junk sale!  Mine didn’t look nearly this nice and you can imagine what Mike said when I brought it home.  Anyway…………….
I had also been dreaming of and “pinning” chalkboard ideas………can you see where i am going with this?

How-to-make-a-chalkboard
diy-chalkboard

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What a perfect place for the grand kids to play while I work in the kitchen.  This thing is HUGE and I love it!  It measures 48″x61″ and I insisted we hang it low enough (23″ off the floor) so the kids could reach…………and they can!  Our Grandson Daxten tested it this past weekend, looks like he is having fun! This photo was just before he bit a chunk out of the chalk……………..ummm, yuck!

What do you think? Maybe he will be the next Picasso!

chalkboard-art

Our granddaughter Ava Jean visited this weekend too, but she was just chillin’.  Aren’t they just the sweetest?!

too-cool

To make the chalkboard we simply took a 4×4 sheet of fiber board with a smooth side, cut it down to 4×3 and I painted one side with chalkboard paint.  I chose to do this rather than paint the actual wall, I thought if I ever wanted take it down, I didn’t want to ruin the wall with the paint and years of chalk.  We then measured and cut 1×6 boards to fit the sides and bottom of the chalkboard for trim.  For the chalk shelf I used a piece of molding.  We nailed all these pieces to the wall and there you have it!   Simple!!

Ok, I have to admit, when the kids were young I loved all the artwork they brought home from school and I loved to display it, but I hated it plastered all over the front of our refrigerator!

One day while I was out junking, I found this huge old baking sheet.  I bet it made one hell of a monster cookie in it’s day!  I thought it would be the perfect solution for the kids (neighbors and grand kids) artwork!

I had Mike drill a couple of holes on each side for me so I could insert a wire to hang it from.  There you go, instant magnet board for the kids art.   On a side note, the artwork is what you might call vintage!  Since the grand kids are a little young to be bringing Grammy and PaPa cute pictures, I dug out some of their mommy and daddy’s!  My daughter made the owl and the drawing in 1st grade and my son made the penguin when he was in 1st grade!  …………..is it bad that I still have these?  I.  must.  clean.  out. those. tubs!

art-display-board

The measure stick was a gift from my daughter, I gave one to my mom when my kids were young, so it is only fitting that I have one for my grand kids.  The joke at my mom’s is that apparently I didn’t expect any of the kids to get over 5 foot tall (that’s how tall I made her board) <— who would think that GROWN grandchildren would STILL measure themselves as adults?!?!   Ok, so most of those kids were 5 foot by the time they hit 4th grade!  Oh well, lesson learned!  Mom’s stick still hangs in her kitchen and now I have mine – if you look, Daxten turned 1 on May 23rd, so he was the first to be measured on my new stick!  And if he gets as tall has his daddy, he will be at the top of the stick before we know it!

kitchen-fun-center

FYI – the fun arrow came from Hobby Lobby!

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