A vintage kitchen chalkboard is a wonderful addition to any room and will dramatically enhance the existing decor. It can also be utilized as a handy menu board for the dining room, serve as a family message forum in the pantry, to display emergency telephone numbers, appointments and http://kitchenchalkboard.net/wp-admin/post.php?post=70&action=editspecial quotes of the day, and it may also be used as a useful tool to encourage your child to explore his/her creativity.
Did you know? Chalkboard paint can easily transform practically any hard, flat surface into a beautiful kitchen chalkboard. Some examples include old cupboard doors, antique vanity mirrors, ornate vintage frames and recycled dresser drawers. Just look around in your basement and attic or head over to your local hardware store to assemble the necessary items needed to create a vintage kitchen chalkboard. Don’t want to go through all the trouble of making one yourself? Then simply point your mouse towards the link below to purchase a model for cheap.
Before we move on though, here is a little bit of history about this popular household accessory:- it first began as small slabs of slate that were neatly fitted with wooden borders. Teachers and students wrote on them with miniature shards of slate instead of using paper and ink, which were quite expensive at the time. In the beginning of the 1800s, a Sottish teacher had a brainwave – he decided to shift the pieces of slate up the wall and use them in this position to teach his lessons. So rather than writing on each and every slab of slate, teachers could now write on the chalkboard, thereby allowing more of their pupils to be working at the same time. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the standard furnishing you would expect in a single room shool house were a row of benches, a wood stove and a simple blackboard.
In the event the school were on a tight budget, then teachers would simply paint a wall black in order to make it appear as it was made of slate. And that concludes this interesting little history lesson. Let us now look at how you can construct a lovely vintage kitchen chalkboard with a picture frame right from the comfort of your own home. First off, here are the items you are going to need – silver spray paint, sandpaper, old ornate picture frame, paintbrush, crackle, dust rag, hammer, brad, nails, chalkboard paint, white enamel, picture hanger and a ply board measured to effortlessly fit inside the frame and thick enough to perfectly fit the groove on the back of the frame. Alright, onto step 1 – Use the silver spray paint to spray the picture frame and set aside to dry for a while. Next, paint a layer of crackle over the entire area of the frame, and allow it to dry.
Thereafter, carefully paint a coat of white enamel over the crackle. Please keep in mind that the crackle medium is activated almost instantly, so you want to make sure you paint in single strokes only, otherwise your paint is bound to get smudged. Leave aside for a while to dry. It will eventually crack and reveal the silver layer underneath. Now, grabbing your sandpaper, proceed to thoroughly sand the top surface of the ply board that will finally become the kitchen chalkboard. This procedure is done to give the board sufficient grip for the paint applications afterward. Remove all of the existing dust particles with a clean rag. Then, coat the area of the board using the primer, in order to have a smooth and durable surface for the chalkboard paint. Make sure the primer is fully dry before doing moving forward.
Vintage Kitchen Chalkboard
Next, gently apply a layer of the above-mentioned paint on the surface. Allow to dry. This may take up to 4 hours. Later, you will need to apply a second coat of this paint. This time however, leave it to dry overnight. We are now nearing completion of our vintage kitchen chalkboard, so hang on tight! The next day, place the vintage frame in such a way so that the back side is facing upward.
Take your time to slide in the chalkboard into the back of the frame with the painted side facing downward. Now, all you have got to do is simply nail in the brads to the back edges of your ply board and into the frame. Tip: Doing this from an angle will prevent the brads from jutting out of the front of the frame. To complete this fantastic household accessory, center and attach the hanger you have selected to the top back of the frame!