Chalkboard Redux

I know, chalkboards have been done and done and done. Even by me. But I wanted still ONE MORE. One on the wall near the front door, near the main living area, one which would offer a dose of hot, fresh inspiration. Easily changeable words to fuel the fire, stoke the day, well…. you get the idea.

Lounging in the closet was an old painting, one of those cooking pigs. What can I say, it came with the house. Dinged on the edges and heavy as can be. I loved the scale, the heft the dinged-ness of it.  So late one night working in the very cold studio in jammies, three pairs of socks and flip-flops I started to work.

Two coats of chalkboard paint ( I rushed it a bit in between coats with a heat gun). The cooking pig had been mod podged (or something like it) with very thick and wonky coats going every which way. It doesn’t bother me at all that the final layer of the chalkboard is not perfectly smooth.

Then, stenciling the edge with white semi-gloss paint in a thick/thin application followed. With cold feet.

I used a white paint pen to add to the distressed look of the stencil. Some areas got a bit of highlight and definition.

The paint pen applied dots around the edges, nothing is perfectly straight by design.

The fleur de lis was stenciled using a foam stamp and more white semi-gloss.

I used an almost dry brush to add a bit of white around the sides of the chalkboard in places.

Once dried I used chalk pens to write the current saying” Never Settle for an Ordinary Life”.

Indeed and voila!

 Joining Savvy Southern Style, Green Willow Pond, Jennifer Rizzo