I Love Chalk boards!

So if you remember from one of my past posts about the 40 ammo boxes I bought, well it was time to paint up a few more tops into chalkboards.  You can see my first tops reported HERE.

I was able to get the sample size jars of the Martha Stuart paint at Home Depot for $1.00 (they are discontinuing the line) I picked a turquoise color called Lagoon and also a deep brick red called Chocolate Cosmos.

So I started by filling in the nail holes with some wood putty,  gave the top a quick sand, a coat of primer and I was ready to get started.

First coat of color was the brick red and I did that all around, even on the back leaving the chalk board area alone. Let it dry.

Next I painted over the red with the turquoise color. Let it dry. 

Because I knew that I'd be distressing the wood and adding a glaze I felt that a second coat of paint wasn't necessary.

So after the paint had dried I got out my trusty handy dandy orbital sander.  I'm not one for sanding by hand. So I lightly went over in the spots that I wanted the red to show thru to create that distressed look. The trick is to sand off the turquoise paint but not the red, this requires a light touch.

After that was done I used a glaze product I got from Woodcraft called Burnt Umber Glaze Effects

So I just brushed it on liberally and wiped down with a damp cloth. I find that wiping with a damp cloth eliminates brush marks  I love this stuff  it really is a great finish for distressed pieces.

So that part was done I then painted the chalk part using FolkArt brand of Chalk Board Paint. I needed to do 3 coats.


In all projects I learn something and this is true with this. What have I learned?  My first set of these I used the vaseline trick and also some crackle to expose the undercoat of paint. I didn't do that here. The brick red was such a great color combined with the turquoise  but I was a bit disappointed that the red didn't show up as much as I would of liked.  A little vaseline would of worked wonders for it. I'll use vaseline next time

I also learned that combining colors is fun and I'll do it again. Next I'm thinking of using that same red with a deep eggplant color.