DMS is a big fan of chalkboard paint. (Check it out here!). When we moved into our old house there were two very big and uninspiring walls in the kitchen, covered with bland yellow. We didn’t know what else to do with them, so we thought we’d make them our chalkboards. It’s turned into a favorite part of the house. We found a great deep red chalkboard paint (official color name: Garnet) that went well with a dark brown we were using for other walls and accents. You can get tintable chalkboard paint at Home Depot; they have 12 colors! They also have pre-mixed "chalkboard black" and “chalkboard green” paint! It took 2 – 3 layers to really get the color on there (we didn’t use a primer, and you also want the color/paint to be thick so the chalk works well on it). Around the same time we went to Ikea for some other things and while we were poking around we found a couple of great items for the chalk wall: a great set of colored chalks. But just as cool, we found a mini-rack system with a wall-mounting rack that came with three silver pots/buckets with hangers to hook them over said rack. Not only did the silver go with some other things we had (mirrored furniture and the silver balls) but they looked great against the dark red of our chalkboard wall. And they’re a great storage spot for the chalk, and eraser, and a few other handy items. The chalkboard wall is one of my favorite and most used parts of the house. We use it all the time. We keep a running shopping list on it. I also have a list of projects I’m working on (or want to), and DMS writes out quotes or phrases she hears and wants to remember. We also draw pictures and leave messages for each other.
Recently we’ve been using it to track goals: how many pounds we’ve lost on our diet; how many weeks I’ve gone without beer. No matter where else I live in my life, I’ll definitely want to have a chalkboard wall. So much fun!
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DMS loves some mirrors (and, um, gold). We had this 4’ mirror that I’d brought to the house from several previous places. The frame had busted off and it was cracked; fairly unusable. But I held onto it in the basement, thinking I might try something with it someday. One day I was shopping at Target and found this great frame. It was black and they didn’t have other color options, but I wanted something to make the mirror pop a bit more. So I took it home and did a once-over with the gold spray paint. I took the mirror and wrapped it in an old bedsheet I use as a paint tarp. Then I essentially beat it with a hammer, smashing the mirror into bits. That led to some great shapes, and kept all the small bits of broken glass in the sheet, so it was easy to clean up. From there I tried to find a variety of pieces; mostly the bigger or medium sized bits. Using the frame’s backing (what you normally put back on after you put a picture in a frame; it locks into the frame itself to keep everything in place) as my base, I spread the mirror pieces out till I had a pattern I liked, starting with the three biggest pieces near the corners. Then I filled in the space between with slightly smaller pieces, and moved things till I was happy. Once I had a design I was happy with, I used a hot glue gun to attach the mirror pieces to the backing, flipping and gluing them one at a time.
After the pieces had dried, I went over them one by one with Windex, and did the same with both sides of the frame’s glass. Really happy with the end result. We hung it between two candelabras and it looks great with them lit. As with all mirrors it expands the way the room feels. And with the fractured pieces chopping the reflection up, it’s endlessly interesting, breaking up the reflection of my guitar, or our books, or me! |