chalkboard

I have a two story living room that has been languishing in it’s builder grade off-white paint for many years now. Every other room in my home has been painted (and repainted) many times. But for some reason, the living room’s flat finish has escaped my paint brush. Because of the high ceilings, I would have to hire a crew to paint it properly. And since I’ve never been able to come up with a definitive answer on paint color, I’ve just been living with it as is. Recently, the thought entered my head that I needed to paint the fireplace wall with black chalkboard paint. Most of the other colors in my house tend to be more of the soft and soothing persuasion but for some reason it became clear that I needed to go with the bold contrast.

The next question was how high did I want to paint up (half way) and how did I want to finish the edge between the chalkboard paint and the off white paint. I didn’t want to just do a straight line across which tends to look choppy and essentially says, “This is as high as I can reach.” I didn’t want to mess with moulding either so I came up with the somewhat brilliant idea of making the edge scalloped. I believed that way the transition of the two colors would look somewhat intentional.

So here is the wall before. I had started removing all the items from the mantel before I remembered to snap a picture. (You can see some of the other elements in the room that are on the makeover list as well.)

I started painting as high as I could while only standing on a chair. (My secret to paint free floors? Vinyl tablecloths!) The paint I used was Rustoleum black Chalkboard paint. It came in quart sizes from Home Depot and I ended up using two for this project.

Next, I needed to start working on the edge. I taped two pieces of printer paper together and drew a scallopy shape freehand across both pages. I then cut out the shape and began the arduous task of measuring, taping and tracing the template to the wall while balancing precariously on the ladder. I had to repeatedly climb up and down and move the ladder a few inches across the floor at a time until I had a wobbly pencil line going the whole length of the wall.

And then I just started painting. And painting and painting. It took a long time to hand paint the scalloped edge (although I did take a much needed break to watch the season finale of Design Star.)

And here is the finished chalkboard wall with everything back in place. (The drapes are currently on probation and the pair of chairs are due for a face-lift.)