Painting A Framed Chalkboard

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Hello Friends!
You know when you’ve had a project in mind for a long time and every time you walk by 
it speaks to you? Maybe it’s just me.

This is one of those projects.
I really wanted a framed, distressed white chalkboard ever sine I found a fancy framed mirror on Craigslist, way back when. 
Well, I finally got around to painting it white.

This is how it looked before. I bought it before gold was back in vogue. I've always loved gold, but felt the gold was a little too brassy.
But, I left it. Every time I walked by it or took a photo of it, the words “this would look so much better painted white” would come to mind.

So, a couple of weeks ago, I had Mr. DIY move the chalkboard to the dining room talbe on top of a drop cloth I went outside to get my Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and supplies. I thought I had an off white ASCP, but it was bright white. I thought I had painted some candlesticks with the ASCP, but if I had checked my blog, I would have found out that I painted those candlesticks with craft paint. 

Hmmm. I got online to order some chalk paint and found Rustoleum has a chalked paint now and I though I’d try it.  Do It Best had some listed online for $10.99 a quart. I thought it was a typo, since everyone else had it for $16.98 or more. I ordered some and had it delivered to my nearest Ace Hardware to save on shipping. I think Do It Best caught their mistake because it’s now listed for $18.99, which is still a great price!
I ordered white linen, thinking it would be a nice off white, but it was white. I decided to go ahead and paint it anyway.
Taking out the chalkboard panel was too much trouble, so I taped it up with some recycled paper from a shipping box.

  After painting the frame with one coat, I decided to paint a second coat because some of the gold still showed through. 

I didn't have any dark wax, and that wasn't really the look I wanted, so I used some Minwax Provincial stain mixed with Rustoleum's Driftwood stain. I wanted an old, painted and distressed kind of look. If you want a fancy, really beautiful heirloom look- this isn't it. For that look, see the Annie Sloan website for how to achieve different finished.  I wanted an old, I've been painted a few times and worn, imperfect kind of look. The stain was sufficient to achieve what I wanted.

Then, I used a dry brush technique over the stain with the chalk paint.

After that, I sanded some of the edges to expose the gold finishe. I used a flexible sanding block to do this.

Here's how the mirror looks now:

 
A slightly darker wall color (it's on the project list), will make the distressed painted chalkboard really stand out.

And you know every time I walk past the foyer, I’ll be thinking we need to paint it!

The projects never end!

Pam

You can see how we changed our Craigslist find mirror into a chalkboard HERE.

If you'd like to see how I gave the candlestick a paint makeover, you can find it HERE.


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