DIY Chalkboard & Weathered Frame {from an Old Picture}

I’m so excited to share this fun project with you – creating a DIY chalkboard with weathered frame from an old picture – that hits so many things that AOC is about:

• it reuses a seen-better-days item {from your stash or a thrifted find}
• it costs between $0-$10, depending on having to buy the item and/or paint
• it’s quick and doable
• it’s perfect with it’s imperfections
• it results in a high-end looking product

Plus, I LOVE it! Like, every day I walk by and it just lifts my spirits. If you, too, have been wanting a large chalkboard, this is the way to get it – and it’s super easy, since you paint right on the glass. Yep, no taking everything apart! What this means is you can transform {or look for at thrift stores} a nicely framed print, the kind with a finished paper backing, and be able to keep the nice backing.

I started with this large framed print that we’ve had for more than 20 years, the last 10 of those has been spent hiding in a closet. I’ve been mulling a makeover of this forever, since the frame is just about perfect in size and style. This picture has a funny story to go along with it:

When Brian and I were first married and were putting together our first apartment, we did a lot of thrift shopping, as you might guess. I found this frame – empty – on one trip and bought it because I liked the classic style. I think it was $5, though I don’t remember except that we didn’t pay much more than that for anything back then. Brian was doing some work with the Portland Art Museum and they had an impressionist exhibit, so he came home with this free print, which I liked and went with our decor. I wanted to frame it in the thrifted frame, but we needed glass cut to size, etc. and we didn’t know a thing about any of that. So we found a DIY framing shop near us and took our $5 frame and free print there, thinking if we did it ourselves it must be reasonable, right? Well, they immediately set us up to framing, and we didn’t know until it was time to pay that the bill came to more than $50! We about choked, but at that point the deed had been done, ha! All I could think was the kind of art I could’ve gotten for $55 – I mean, I didn’t like the print that much. 🙂

Anyway, it’s provided a pretty good story since then and we laugh about it now of course. But as you can see, the frame got pretty beat up in our moves and sitting in the closet. The frame, while solid wood, is faux painted with black specks which sort of dates it for me. But I didn’t want to paint it white, since our walls are white and I was looking for more of a contrast to go along with the cottage industrial look I’m leaning towards now.

After updating the frames on my butterfly specimens with a Restoration Hardware-look gray weathered, I knew right away that this frame would be perfect for it, too. And here’s where I confess that this is a true diy project: I just started dry-brushing acrylic craft paint over the frame until I liked the result. I’m sure there are really good how-to-weather-wood tutorials out there using specific paints, but I wanted to use what I had and I’m actually really pleased with the outcome! If you have a stash of craft paints like I do, here’s an outline of how I painted the frame:

1. Mixed a bit of black acrylic paint into white (didn’t have gray) and then added a squirt of burnt-umber to warm it up a bit (I think this is the “greige” I read decorators talking about…).
2. Used a smaller very stiff-bristle brush to dry brush a light coat right on top of the frame – I didn’t even sand first, since I was afraid of leaving noticeable marks (note: dry brushing involves loading a bit of paint onto the tip of the brush and then dabbing most of it off on a paper-towel-lined paper plate – at least that’s how I do it).
3. I also kept a rag nearby, did small sections at a time, and wiped off after applying, just to get more of a smudgy look.
4. Added one more dry-brushed coat of the mixed paint. I let the paint cover the gouges and scrapes, since I knew that would add to the weathered look.
5. Decided it was a bit too gray for our house and then dry-brushed a tan acrylic over the top, very randomly.
6. After that dried, I dry-brushed here and there, wiped with the rag and stood back to look at the whole thing, until I thought it was ‘even’ enough.

As you can see, it’s a fluid, personal process. You can’t really hurt it, since you can always add more of this or that – or completely paint over if you just don’t like it. And the imperfections are supposed to be there – don’t you love that?

I’m not really sure if it’s best to paint the frame first or the glass, but I thought I could control the application of the solid paint more than the dry brush technique, so I painted the frame first. Painting the glass and creating the chalkboard is really easy:

• Paint 2 coats of flat black latex paint (you can use a special chalkboard paint if you have it, but I’ve learned over the years that flat black paint works just as well!) with a foam brush to lessen strokes, brushing the first coat on vertically and the second horizontally (or visa-versa, the important thing is to alternate the direction of each coat).
• Use a small artist brush to get the edges, if you want (I did) – but don’t worry about it being perfectly straight as no one will notice that, I promise.
• When completely dry (wait a couple days to be sure), condition the painted surface to create the ‘chalkboard’ by rubbing the side of a piece of chalk all over the surface and then wiping it off with a rag, leaving a film of chalk.

That’s it – now you can hang it and figure out what fun thing you’re going to write on it!

I searched Pinterest for the first thing I wanted to draw on the board, and found this saying with a tutorial (which I didn’t follow, because – math, hello?) and just eyeballed-copied it with regular chalk. I didn’t use my favorite chalk markers for this, since I wanted it to look really chalk-baordy. It was one of those things I just started doing without realizing it would take 45 minutes – yikes. I think we’ll go much simpler in the future. 🙂

One of the other reasons I knew I wanted to go with the weathered gray frame was because the chalkboard would be hanging near the butterfly specimens, which you see together in our great room. I think they look great together – and with the farmhouse metal kitchen light we added a few months ago.

I’m thinking of all the ways I can update it through the seasons with sayings, wreaths, and banners. Maybe you can tell I’ve been wanting a large chalkboard for awhile? What about you – do you have an old picture you can update to a chalkboard?

This is linked to The Creative Circle, Best DIY & Recipes Link Party, and Something to Talk About Link Party.