I decided not too long ago that I HAD to have a chalkboard wall. Right in the middle of my dining room. Hey, I’m embracing the learning happens everywhere philosophy. We tried the school room approach: a school nook first (which was great but not quite in the center of everything enough for me) and then into a separate school room (a converted bedroom) which was a complete disaster; it just never worked for us. I even wrote a post for Heart of the Matter Online about how I homeschool with toddlers in the house. Because with babies and toddlers life happens in the living areas and I need to be able to keep teaching in the midst of cooking, eating, feeding babies, changing diapers, and keeping an eye on little ones who happen to be learning from the Wonder Pets at the moment.
Here is our before wall. Cute and all, but c’mon the word “melanin” barely fits on my wobbly chalkboard.
And here is our after.
My wonderful hubby painted this space with magnetic wall paint first. This did not work so much for us. We did only use two coats because that’s all we had. And at $21.00 a little can, that’s all we were gonna do. Not as important to me as the chalkboard. If you do this, and it is important to you, maybe you could use many more coats and it would work for you. I don’t know.
Then he put a couple of coats of the black chalkboard paint up and we waited 24 hours. That was it. One day later and I was teaching away! I love instant gratification.
If I had advice on this part though, we discussed that next time we’ll sand the wall down a bit and then lay a smoothing primer and then chalkboard paint it. When I write it’s rather rough. Which is fine for now, but we’ll know better next time.
Oh, and we extended it so low so that even the toddlers could write on the wall while I’m teaching. The olders love playing hangman, tic-tac-toe, and just writing their names. And I’m all for fitting in writing skills wherever I can! Plus, you get to say things like, “No, BigMan, you can only write on the wall.” And how fun is that?!
edited to add: I’m now (March 4, 2010) linking this up with The Nester for her chalk board linky. Go check out everybody else’s chalk boards and get inspired!
Love it love it love it! I looove chalkboard walls…
It looks great! Don't be too disappointed with the magnetic paint. It isn't that great. It really only holds the light magnetic pieces (felt, or sticker weight) not the plastic regular letter magnets that most people want to hang. It even says that in the fine print.
I love teaching all over my house too!
Glad to have you writing for HOTM. I write reviews there!
AWE-some!!! I'm aching for some of that paint myself. Not in the budget right now, but I'll be grabbing some when tax money comes around.
Your wall looks fantastic!
ok… so i have had this idea for a while now and have not acted on it, but the magnetic part for me is HUGE!!! So.. here is my idea, go down to your local home depot or lowes or whatever… and buy yourself a sheet of sheet metal
It is not very pricey and you can paint it with your chalk board chalk. They the surface is magnetic, smooth, and portable 
You can screw the metal right into the wall (only leaving 4 holes in the wall when you remove it)
Ok, so I really like your wall
one less-than-$10 can coated that space twice. we LOVE it, girl!
yes, great idea! i tried to talk the boys into “theming” their room a
“garage” kind of theme using the sheet metal for the bottom half of the
room. and using the garage shelving/drawer things for their chest of
drawers. they wouldn't go for it, but it's still a great idea!
link it up and show us if you do it!
and thanks!
yeah, it was an after thought for me. we did discover that the magnets that
come out of a computer hard drive (yes, we're tech geeks!) will stick to it.
i miss writing for them. it's been too long.
and thanks!
thanks so much! we love it so far!
I love it! It looks great!
It looks awesome!!! It makes your windows look better too. Great job!
That looks great! And what a great tool for homeschooling, too!
I just love seeing things done “big and bold”. This one is going in my idea files. Great job!
LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!!
it does, doesn't it? though the first night before i wrote on it, matt and
i kept looking over and startling – it felt like a window was wide open or
there was a gaping hole there. freaky.
i'm all about big and bold! thanks for stopping by!
thanks, it is, and thanks for stopping by!
thanks, you!
i know, right?!
Wow! That is great! I love it! Hmmm….. eyeballing my dining room walls now….
I love it!
I LOEV IT!!!!! Its great….
LOVE IT
oh wow!!! It looks fantastic!!!! Great job!
thanks so much! we love it!
oh wow!!! It looks fantastic!!!! Great job!
thanks so much! we love it!