Persia Lou

Creative. Crafty. Fun.

How to Make a Giant Chalkboard for Just a Few Bucks

A few months ago, one of my friends stopped by my house and on the way out she said, “I hope you don’t think this is weird, but there is a huge frame in someone’s trash up the street. Thought you might want to know.”

That right there — that is true friendship, folks.

I think I’ve mentioned before that I strongly believe you should never pass up a free frame, so I quickly loaded up my littlies in the stroller and headed off to dig through my neighbor’s trash. What I found was this lovely lady and her beau:

When my husband came home to find her in the garage he said, “I really hope I’m not supposed to like that painting.”

Honestly, I thought the painting was kind of cool (though perhaps with a bit more cleavage than I like my living room), but I assured him I was really just after the frame. I wasn’t sure what I was going to be doing with it at first, but when I was putting together my Christmas decor I really wanted a big ol’ chalkboard and our dear lady’s fate was sealed.

To transform my trash to chalkboard treasure, I simply painted a couple coats of chalkboard paint directly onto the canvas. After the chalkboard paint is dry, you prime the surface by rubbing a piece of chalk all over it.

And… that’s it. So, so easy.

For Christmas, I left the original frame as is and added a few pine branches and ribbon to the top. I liked the brown to go with my rustic, woodsy vibe.

When I moved it to its new home post-Christmas, I wasn’t digging the brown frame anymore, gave the frame a coat of white spray paint. (P.S. If you are going to paint your frame, I would do it before painting the canvas with chalkboard paint. When I taped up the chalkboard surface to protect it from the spray paint some of the chalkboard paint came up with the tape and I had to do touch ups.)

And here’s my chalkboard all ready for Valentine’s Day. I took a leftover pom-pom garland from Christmas, added a few crocheted hearts, and draped it across the top.

I love that I got this big art piece for just a few dollars worth of paint! I would love to hear about your best trash finds. Share in the comments! 🙂

Linking up at some of my favorite parties.

Filed Under: Home Decor

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  1. I&#39;m becoming more open to finding treasures in the trash. All it takes is one glance, no shame, though my boyfriend insists it&#39;s the gateway to becoming a hoarder. Oh well!<br />I was so sure you had bought that chalkboard as is when I saw it in your Christmas home tour! It&#39;s so beautiful. <br />I&#39;m terribly jealous of your white pom pom garland. Sorry if I missed the deets,

    • Hi Amy!<br /><br />Thanks, dear! I don&#39;t think I ever posted about the pom pom garland. I just bought a bunch of those little fuzzy pom poms you get from the craft store and threaded them onto some white crochet thread (embroidery floss or other, thicker thread would probably work too) with a needle. That&#39;s it! A nice little project to keep your hands busy when you&#39;re watching TV.

  3. I laughed out loud about your friend letting you know of a good dumpster find. 🙂 My husband now pretends like he can&#39;t hear me when I tell him to stop the car because it&#39;s either something that will take up more space in the garage or a stray dog. 🙂

  5. &quot;I really hope I&#39;m not supposed to like that painting.&quot; Haha, too good!<br /><br /> I love the frame painted white, and the pom pom garland. I missed the chance to get the West Elm one during the holidays before it sold out. Gotta just DIY it now!

  6. Haha! I had the same thing happen! I brought back this ugly framed picture and I told my husband I loved it and I was going to hang it in the hallway. I had him going for like 5 minutes. So fun. I just wanted the frame:) It really was a hideous picture. Great project Alexis!

  9. I really love the coloring you kept it for Christmas then changed it up for Valentines day. It looks great!! And that totally sounds like something my husband would say too lol.. Love this project!

  11. This is so cute, and I definitely approve of painting over the busty lady… unless it was secretly worth millions of dollars. Still, I wouldn&#39;t want to hang it up anywhere in my house as it was. AWESOME makeover! Also, thanks for sharing at Do Tell Tuesday, and I hope you have a chance to link up again this week! http://www.vintagezest.com/2014/01/