A Little Window Chalkboard DIY Project

I have a little table and chair set for Cooper's new room. Right now it's situated on a little section of wall at the end of his twin bed. Since it's so low to the ground it was in desperate need of some wall art to be hung over top. Hmmm, what to do, what to do?

That's when I remembered that my mom had a set of teeny, tiny, old windows stacked up in her greenhouse. Of course I went over and stole one when she wasn't home one day. Just kidding, she generously let me have my pick. Score!

So here's what the window looked like when I first brought it home:

For some pieces, I really like the idea of keeping the original, chippy paint. However, the original paint looked really dreary up against the paint colour in Coops' room. I really needed a nice, bright white to make it pop. I also didn't want to have loose paint chips flaking off all over the place.

Here's what I basically did:

- removed the glass

- gave the painted wood a light hand sanding with 150 grit sandpaper (with a mask on of course)

- gave it a quick wash with TSP and then a damp rinse with water

- primed the wood with Fresh Start Primer by Benjamin Moore

- painted the wood with Simply White by Benjamin Moore

- applied a glaze over the freshly painted wood with a combination of Behr's Faux Glaze and Benjamin Moore's Castlestone wood stain

- purchased a sheet of hardboard from Lowe's

- cut four rectangles the size of the window openings with an exact-o knife

- primed the hardboard

- painted the hardboard with chalkboard paint (three coats)

- secured the hardboard in behind the window with silicone

- added a picture hanger to the top 

You can see that the glaze / stain combo settled into all of the grooves, cracks, and imperfections and really gave the window some of it's old character and charm back.

The black paint on the chalkboard looks so crisp and clean that I haven't had the heart to condition it yet with chalk. I'll make sure to share a picture the day I finally give the Coopster a piece of chalk and let him go to town.

Oh yeah, and this little project isn't really the most practical for daily chalkboard use. It's kinda more for decoration. If he really likes it, however, I'm not opposed to making a bigger one for him. There's nothing like jumping on the chalk paint bandwagon five years late.

:)

P. S. Four of my little friends wanted to say hi today. That's Roary, Lexie, Cooper, and "Big Ryder".

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