My First Crack at Homemade Chalkboard Paint

Oh my gosh, I love chalkboard paint!  The world would be a much brighter place if everything was covered with it, don't you agree?  Well, I finally took my first stab at making my own chalkboard paint with some leftover paint that I picked up on a Freecycle.  This could turn out to be a very dangerous thing and it could be my answer to how to upcycle everything....just slap a coat of chalkboard paint on that old couch, no problem!

But seriously, I've had this recipe pinned on one of my Pinterest boards forever and have been dying to try it out.  So I did and yeah, it actually worked!

I used the shop walls of my mom and dads pet shop for this little experiment.  They didn't do any kind of repainting when they moved in and had inherited these little circles all over the wall.  Which, as a side note, is the reason that you can NOT hold me accountable for the less than perfect circles.  I only colored inside the lines with my homemade chalkboard paint.

This was an easy peasy project that added just the right amount of color to the walls.  And if you want to give it a try all you have to do is mix 2 tablespoons of dry non-sanded grout to 2 cups of ANY COLOR PAINT YOU DARN WELL PLEASE! Then start painting.  That's it!  If you're going to give it a go there are two things that tripped me up, caused concern and made me wonder if "I was doing it right:"

1.  ALL of the dry non-sanded grout at the hardware store made a point of calling out that it was "dry non-sanded grout with polymer." Uh, polymer?  Did that matter?  Nope not a bit.

2.  The recipe that I pinned said to make sure there are no lumps in your paint/grout mixture.  It doesn't take but a minute to blend up a small batch and remove the big clumps.  But your mixture will look grainy and that's okay.  When you start painting you'll see that grainy paint smooth out under the weight of your brush...which by the way, I recommend a foam brush so that you won't see brushstrokes.

Cute, right?  So what are you waiting for?  Go!  Go upcycle with a couple coats of chalkboard paint and if you need inspiration hop over to Pinterest and search "chalkboard paint"...you won't be disappointed!