Welcome! I was asked after my last post to show a few more of our wooden ornaments, but I didn't get a chance to take pictures today when I had good lighting. I will try to get more of my favorites photographed this week and share them. I still have a few more decorating or gift projects up my sleeve to share though!
Today's project is a blackboard that is going to hang above my keyboard as soon as I get a hanger in the wall. When Rick and I were browsing through Home Depot last week, he ran across a display of 18" x 24" Barnwood Framed Blackboards on sale for under $10 each and asked me if they were something I could use. Ummm, YES! I've been loving lettering over the last year, and I really had to restrain myself, purchasing only two of them. (Tell me that I'm not the only person who has ever bought--well, maybe ten of something that was a good deal, just sure that you would get them all made, and nine of them are still in your basement?) But I had concrete plans for TWO of them, so I was good and bought just two.
I started by coating the plastic-feeling "blackboard" surface with Tommy Black Chalkboard paint. The surface was a little too smooth and perfect for what I had in mind, and painting it left some lovely brush marks that could catch chalk dust better than a smoother surface. I masked the wood when I painted the blackboard so that I could just paint quickly without having to work carefully around edges. I had good coverage with only one coat since I was painting a black surface. However, the instructions for the blackboard paint suggest two coats, with a 72-hour drying time--just an FYI.
I wanted my "blessed" to stretch from edge to edge. Here I have sketched it out in chalk. I have a mechanical pencil that uses a chalk "lead"; it's a dressmakers chalk, and I love it for projects like this--no sharpening needed--awesome!
Next I painted my letters with white chalk paint. I'm going to level with you: it was not as easy to paint letters as it is to draw them on paper or in ProCreate. In fact, next time, chances are good that I will use a chalk marker rather than painting my letters. My thin letter parts ended up being thicker than I had wanted them to be, but I can live with them. I adjusted my expectations. ;-) The white chalk paint covered very well. I also went back to a couple of bobbles and edged a correction with the Black Chalkboard paint after the white was completely dry. So the fault was with the user--not the paint. . .
Lime and Turquoise, anyone? No, I haven't lost my mind. . . yet. I wanted a distressed white finish, but I wanted a few hints of brighter colors to peep through the white. So my first coat was Turquoise, leaving room for Lime in between in no particular pattern. This layer needed to dry 12-24 hours for best case scenario. I might have rushed it a little bit. . . (If you're thinking that it's a crime to paint barnboard, (1) it's probably fake, and (2) my walls are a similar gray, so I needed contrast.)
After the Lime and Turquoise paints dried, I used Tommy Neutral Wax to wipe on the edges and high spots of the hardwood texture so that when I coated it with white chalk paint, I would be able to sand back down to that Lime/Turquoise layer easily enough.
The white chalk paint covers the underlayer well, but that Neutral Wax that I had put before painting the white will give me a finish like. . . (wait for it!)
THIS! Cool, eh? I let the white paint dry (again, should be 12-24 hours curing time), then lightly sanded in places where I had waxed the barn wood. When I had exposed as much of the Lime/Turquoise layer as I wanted to, I sealed my frame with a light coat of the Neutral Wax. It darkened the white a bit, but I still have plenty of contrast with the gray wall on which it will hang.
As a finishing touch, I took a stick of chalk and rubbed in on my board, especially coating the edges. Even though I don't intend to try to get the focal word off, I wanted it to look like that was a possibility. Without chalk dust, it was just a little too clean. I may wipe a little more of it off--the jury's still out on that one. But overall, I was really happy with my new framed piece to hang above the keyboard.
My next two pieces will be all about Christmas--one a small gift, and the other a very cool ornament display. . . that needs one more coat of paint. . . Thanks for visiting!
18" x 24" Barnwood Framed Blackboard (Home Depot, under $10)
Tommy Chalk Paints in Black Chalkboard, White, Lime, Turquoise
Tommy Neutral Wax
Fons and Porter Mechanical Fabric Pencil Leads (Out of stock on Amazon, but maybe you could find them elsewhere. Any 9mm lead holder will work with them.)