In all the giveaway frenzy (today is the last day to enter, if you haven’t entered yet the link is here and here) I totally forgot to give you the dibs on my chalkboard project for the breakfast nook.
It is one of those super easy, big bang for your buck projects. Started out as a mirror that I found on our local community’s Facebook buy & sell group for $10.
I’m sure most of the communities have similar groups on Facebook. If you haven’t checked out your local one then please do ASAP. These yard sale groups are always a treasure trove of deals. The added bonus is that you are not buying from/ selling to strangers. You also get to know a lot of your neighbors this way, especially true for a large community like ours that is adding on new houses like we are in 2003! 🙂
Coming back to the mirror, almost all of the tutorials that I found online painted right over the mirror and it seems to be working for them. But this mirror was really heavy and was great quality. The seller said she had bought it an art house auction for a lot more. Plus I kinda liked the mirror look and would have hung it as is if I hadn’t been so bent on having a chalkboard. In short I did not want to mess up the mirror. What if I changed my mind later on and wanted to use it as a mirror? My solution? Paint the back of the mirror!
We removed the mirror from the frame and first primed with a coat of Valspar paint + primer black (I wanted to make sure that we did not damage the mirror finish on the back, hence the primer). I used the paint + primer ‘coz that’s what I had. You can use any spray primer. Once the primer dried I sprayed on 3 layers of the Rustoleum Chalkboard spray paint (from Home Depot).
2 coats would have been enough but I wanted to make sure that I had a great coated surface. When the chalkboard paint is dry carefully attach the frame back on. If you are painting on the back of the mirror like I did then make sure that the mirror side is facing you while putting the frame back on.
Almost there. Before you use the chalkboard you need to prep it by rubbing the chalk sideways covering the entire surface.
You can erase it off and start using your board now. If you skip the above step it will be very hard to erase whatever you write first on the chalkboard.
And that is how the $10 mirror morphed into a chalkboard!
Ready to try your own version?
One thing is for sure, it’ll get a ton of use. Just take a look at ours from this evening. 🙂
Source List
Mirror – $10 (local Facebook yard sale group) Rustoleum Chalkboard Paint – $6 (Home Depot) Valspar Paint & Primer – Already had (Lowes) Total : $16
clever clever to paint the back of the mirror!
Love the idea.. looks awesome 🙂
Hi, what is the name of the facebook community? Is it your facebook page?
Thanks for the help
Lori,
This is part of our neighborhood HOA community. We have similar groups for the adjacent communities/ areas/ and even county. Some have very strict rules and add folks only based on address while others are a bit more lenient. These are basically yard sale groups on FB. Search by the name in your area on FB, you might be able to find them.
Would you be able to use chalk board markers on this?
Maggie,
I think you can.
Vidya