Chalk Wall

So, the other day I talked about this boring wall that is part of our eat-in kitchen area. I talked about how we did a magnet wall and how I wasn't sold on the magnet paint. There was another plan for this wall. Not only did I want it to be magnetic, but also wanted it to be a chalk wall. 

I had used this Valspar Black Chalkboard paint before at our previous house and for little projects. I bought a can of this to paint the chalkboard wall. After painting with the black magnetic primer, it left the walls too dark I thought. The black looked too harsh. 

I had read about a new kind of Benjamin Moore chalkboard paint on a blog. This new kind of paint is great because you could make chalkboard paint into ANY color - red, blue, green, you name it you could turn it into chalkboard paint providing there was enough contrast between the chalk and color. I didn't want to go as dark as black but still wanted a high contrast of the chalk and wall color - so I looked for a darker gray. 

Let me just tell you that me and picking our paint colors don't mix. I like to come up with the general color of the space, but when it comes to picking that PERFECT shade, I am terrible and it doesn't help that I am incredibly indecisive. Picking the perfect color of gray that would have contrast, go with my kitchen and brownish gray couches was a challenge. After literally hours of analyzing a couple paint swatches, I finally settled on a charcoaly gray color from Sherwin Williams - I couldn't tell you the color name though - it wasn't written on the can. 

It was much better than going with the harsh black, but it still looks black in some lights. I recommend this paint and think it would be fun to use other colors as well instead of something as boring as gray. :)

 Once I painted and let it dry for three days, you have to "season" the wall as you call it. I didn't know you had to do this so the last few times I've used chalkboard paint I was always seeing remnants of the last chalk creation. Turns out you have to "season" the wall with chalk before you write on it so this doesn't happen! I thought this would be a quick job and use a piece of chalk or two.This project takes longer than you think and I probably used up at least 10 pieces of chalk from rubbing and scribbling on the wall. It's good exercise for your arm muscles!

Oh, and it makes a GIANT mess on your floor :)

So, I have already used the wall for Christmas and New Year's sayings. It is fun to be able to switch it out and change the quotes/sayings out often. 

I love this new chalk wall and so does Brecken who is learning to draw on the bottom portion as well.