DIY Cabinet Door Chalkboard

Every now and again here on this little blog I like to pretend I am crafty.  I meant to post this project a few days ago but I've been fighting with my project and repainting.  So a while back when a neighbor of mine was moving she had an entire German cabinet that she couldn't take home with her.  She scrapped most of it but thought the doors were pretty and saved them for me because she knew I liked junk.  Isn't that nice when people are thoughtful like that?  Anyways I've been storing them away until I had time to put them to use in a DIY project.  There are two of them so I decided to make one of them into a chalkboard and try out some Annie Sloan Chalk Paints that I had been waiting to try out. 

Finding the Chalk Paint in Germany could have been a whole other blog post in itself.  I had to drive an hour away to find this very nice German lady who is a Stockist.  She even had her daughter take a ride with me to show me where the ATM was in their little town.  Why did I need to make a trip to the ATM?  Well if you've ever bought Chalk Paint, you know that it's damn expensive.  And I think in Germany it may even be double the price!  It's great paint though.  Goes over many surfaces without prepping and it also goes a long way.  The wax is also great too.  In 8 simples steps, here is what I created:

Don't mind my 14 year-old boy chicken scratch handwriting :)

Here is my haul of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  I only used the tiny Paris Grey and Clear Wax but I also bought, Dark Wax, and the colors, Old White, Louis Blue, and Emile, which I am excited to try.

So here is what you need for the project:

Step 1: Tape the area you don't want to be covered with chalkboard paint.

Step 2: Take your door frame outside for some sanding.  You can use chalkboard paint on glass but there is a bit of prepping involved.  In order to make the surface porous enough for the chalkboard  paint to stick you'll need to sand it.  This is why you need the bandana.  Sanding glass is something you should use caution with.  You don't want to have those pieces in your house and you certainly don't want to breathe the glass dust in your lungs so take it outside and use a bandana just to be safe.  Use gloves as well.  Sanding the glass sucked because I had to put a lot of pressure to get it sanded and it didn't even looked like much was coming off but it was.

Step 3: After wiping off your glass debris outside, cover the surface with your chalkboard paint.

Step 4: I waited 3 days for my paint to fully dry then I taped up the surface that I didn't want getting my color paint on.

Step 5: Choose your color to paint the frame.  I chose the simple but beautiful AS Paris Grey.  One coat should do it and you don't even have to prep your surface.

Step 6: Distress your frame with sandpaper.  I actually didn't like the way it turned out the first time I tried to distress it, so I ended up painting over it.  I decided to do minimal distressing and followed the line of the wood and highlighted the parts that stuck out.

Step 7: After at least 3 hours put your wax over the painted area.  I originally thought I would use the Dark Wax to make it darker but then I opened the can and it's literally black.  The Dark Wax is a stain and I didn't like how it looked for this project so I put a coat of Clear Wax on with a paper towel instead.  For bigger project I'd say use a rag or paint brush but for this I just used what I had, a paper towel.  The wax goes a long way. I only used the contents of the lid.

Step 8:  The last step involves weathering  your chalkboard.  You are suppose to turn your chalk sideways and rub it on the entire chalkboard, wipe it off and then use your chalk.

And that's it.  I think I will end up hanging this outside so we can leave funny messages.

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