Monday, November 23, 2009

I did it!

I painted giant black rectangle on my kitchen wall, and framed it with trim I bought at Lowe's and painted a dark gray.


Despite how the picture looks, the rectangle is not crooked. There are plenty of other (minor, I hope) flaws in the wall, but that is not one of them.

Here is a close-up of the frame:


And here you see the new chalkboard posing with my great-grandma's chopping bowl. We don't use it as a chopping bowl anymore. It's more of a mail/rubber band collector that I try to keep empty but it never seems to stay that way.


This is what I learned from this weekend's chalkboard adventure:

1) If you don't have painter's tape, electrical tape may not be the best substitute. It's pretty stretchy, and is not easy to get straight.

2) Cutting a 45-degree angle is really hard!

3) Cutting edges to be the same length is not too easy, either.

4) But that's OK, because it's pretty hard to get a perfect rectangle on the wall.

5) If you find yourself whispering, "it is what it is," as you near completion of your DIY project, it is a pretty good indication that some (or most?) things did not go exactly as planned.

6) Most project flaws are best kept a secret.

And here's the closing image, just because I like the giant bright space with the huge chalkboard wall. Painting an entire wall is one way to avoid that nasty task of painting a rectangle.


3 comments:

Unknown said...

Will you please update us on the chalkboard adventures and what eventually gets written on the board.... I'd like to know the kinds of things you will use it for.

Things That Inspire said...

This is great to see - I have been thinking and thinking about doing a chalkboard in my kitchen! I am planning on painting on masonite, then having my super-cheap framer frame it with a simple frame painted with Benjamin Moore white dove. I'll let you know how it goes! Putting you on my blog roll, I am really enjoying your posts.

Julie said...

Thank you for adding me! My blog is new, but I have been a (lurking) fan of yours for a while. Masonite would be a great surface for the paint. It went on smoothly on my walls, but it doesn't have that blackboard feel to it, you know? And good call on the framer - I cut my own trim (without a miter saw!), and it was frustrating to say the least.