For as long as I’ve owned the house, I’ve had an IKEA blackboard in my kitchen. It’s been a source of amusement for many a guest, as you can see.
Eventually it wore out just from regular use, but also by grease aerosolized from cooking, so it really was no good anymore. Nonetheless, don’t toss out nice things if you have the will to repair them – and chalkboards can be resurfaced!
Meanwhile, after being in my kitchen for well over 17 years, I decided to replace the blackboard with this mug rack that I built of my own design. This in turn let me get rid of a certain cupboard off the wall, and open up my kitchen even more.
I read online that you didn’t have to buy chalkboard paint at $16 a spray can or $25 a quart can. You could mix it yourself in whatever colour you wanted. The key ingredient is grout, specifically unsanded grout. So I borrowed a bag of this from a contractor friend, and fortunately I had a small quantity of black paint on hand. Bob Vila’s website has a good, standard guide on how to mix and apply it. Make sure to clean the surface well, and rub it with fine sandpaper, as you won’t be using a primer.
The surface of the blackboard wasn’t very large. For my work, I used a measuring cup to do the mixing, and it was a matter of just a couple of teaspoons of grout. I’d already taped the blackboard edges so work could go quickly. I painted it on using a 1-½” brush.
I waited a day between coats and another before final testing, to make sure it was good and cured. You don’t want to mar it with a permanent chalk mark by writing on it before it’s ready!
The surface was considerably rougher than any board you’d buy new at a store. Here’s a writing test:
After I hung the blackboard in a new location, I inspected the chalk I had on hand. Like the blackboard, they’d been exposed to kitchen grease and dust the entire time. I used an old toothbrush to clean the surface of the chalk sticks:
Since mounting / hanging things is a skill you can use for anything, not just blackboards, I decided to write a DIY project for how to hang anything on a wall. And here is the big reveal!
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