How to Turn Glass in a Frame into a Chalkboard...

Who doesn't love a chalkboard just waiting to be adorned with special words or a fun drawing? These days, chalkboard decor is everywhere, and I couldn't resist jumping on the bandwagon and I have come up with an easy shortcut in creating beautiful chalkboards simply by painting the existing glass in frames with chalkboard paint.








I have been painting glass for years for various projects and it hit me the other day (as I was having trouble finding chalkboards to fit my various size frames), why not paint the existing glass in my frames with chalkboard paint? Well, it worked perfectly and is so easy and I now know what everybody is getting for Christmas!

Let's just jump right into the instructions:





1) Take your existing frame and glass and remove the glass. Please be careful, the sides of frame glass is unfinished and are very sharp:








2) With an oven mitt on your hand to protect from being cut, clean your glass with glass cleaner or alcohol.

3) Lay your glass flat outside on a flat surface that you can paint on without having to lift up the glass to paint and spray with any kind of spray primer that says it will work on glass:




4) The primer must completely dry otherwise the chalkboard paint will not work. I always allow at least two hours.

5) I used Valspar's Chalkboard Paint and stirred up the paint really good and applied my first coat of chalkboard paint using a wide foam brush. Chalkboard paint goes on really uneven and you may even think something is wrong. No worries, the trick is to try and just get a thin coat of paint on the glass going in one direction:





6) You will need to let your first coat of paint dry completely at least an hour or more. Then you can apply your second coat in the opposite direction of your first brush stroke. Again, the chalkboard paint does not go on very evenly but believe me, it will smooth out and dry evenly as you can see in my picture below taken right after my second coat:





After your second coat of paint dries, you will be amazed at how it magically evens out and transforms into a smooth chalkboard:









7) When the paint is completely dry, just insert the glass and cardboard piece behind the glass back into your frame and you are in business:











I painted all kinds of frame glass for this project. I painted small frames that rest on the counter (use for quotes, lists or messages) and I also painted larger wall frame glass to add a whimsical touch to my walls (draw pictures, monograms or quotes). For one particular old wall frame sitting in my junk box, I painted not only the glass but I painted the frame too:









I loved how it turned out and I put it low on my entry way wall for a certain little munchkin that runs around my home to draw on when she wants:






This project would make a great gift! Think about making one of these in a small counter frame with a quote or "Happy Birthday" written on the board and wrap it in cellophane with a pretty bow and give it to a girlfriend or sister with two sticks of chalk. For Christmas, I'm going to make several larger frames and write "Joy" or "Noel" in red chalk and wrap in cellophane and give as gifts. There are a lot of endless possibilities here!

Well that's it for now. I have been working on revamping my entry way and hope to have it all finished by next week and will be posting the project. I also have several other fun projects almost ready for you, so check back soon.

As always, thank you, thank you for your sweet comments, emails and notes! You all just warm my heart and I can't thank you enough for your kind encouragement and feedback. I laughed so hard reading all of your hysterical comments about being "Cricut-less" on the the vinyl letters and monogram post last week.

Have a wonderful weekend friends!

Cheers!

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