How to Make a Magnetic Chalkboard
One of my sweet clients asked me to make a magnetic chalkboard for her children’s playroom. Woo Hoo! I love kids stuff! The Hubs made a trip to our local hardware store and quickly had a frame and hardboard ready for me to paint. I had made a small one years ago using a magnetic primer with chalkboard paint on top. I wasn’t too thrilled with the results. After a little on-line research I was assured that the new and improved magnetic paint was far superior to it’s fore fathers.
I purchased Rustoleum’s Magnetic paint at Lowe’s for around $20.00. All I can say is – WHAT A TOTAL HOT MESS! You can tell by the can what a mess it was. Not only was it messy, it did not clean up with water ( my bad) and when rolled on it was a gritty mess. Now before all of you out there in blog land blast me and tell me that I didn’t stir it enough, let me assure you that fifteen minutes ( I so totally counted!!!) of stirring this paint to absolute creamy smoothness still left a gritty uneven mess. Total. Epic. Fail. I give this product a D-. And that is being generous. Sorry Rustoleum!
On to plan B.
We called around and found a local sheet metal shop that was willing to cut out a light weight gauge of sheet metal for around $30.00. The Hubs sanded the original board painted with the magnetic paint down until it was smooth.
Then applied contact cement to the board…
And to the sheet metal.
After letting both sit for a bit, he laid small scrap boards on top of the black board…
Then laid the metal sheeting on top, being careful to line up with the blackboard that was beneath.
Then starting in the middle pull out the scrap boards one by one, pressing and smoothing down the metal to the hard board below.
TA DA! Now as this was glued together using contact cement you basically have one shot at getting it on there – cuz it ain’t going anywhere after it has been pressed together that is for sure! So be sure that you have it lined up really well before removing the scrap boards!
After cleaning the sheet metal, all that is left to do is roll on two to three coats of chalkboard paint.
The hubs had made a simple frame using molding that was pre-primed.
A few coats of spray paint and my chalkboard was ready to put together!
Here is the finished project. So darn cute AND it is a smooth, even surface that makes writing on it super easy. I give the sheet metal and chalkboard paint an A! The hardest part of this project was building the frame. However, if you have an existing frame it would be a fail proof project!
Until next time…..
Tammy