My 3 Monsters: {31 Days to a Brand New Room}Day 5: Chalk Board Wall Paint

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10.05.2012

{31 Days to a Brand New Room}
Day 5: Chalk Board Wall Paint

If you're joining us for the first time today, this is day 5 of a 31 day series about how to give a room in your home a brand new look, from top to bottom, completely DIY.  



Yesterday I showed you the star of this room makeover -- the faux plank accent wall.  Today I'm going to show you what we did on the other three walls.  I decided  I wanted to go with a dramatic navy blue paint to counter the crisp white accent wall.  After lots of research online I decided on Hale Navy from Benjamin Moore.  
 External Image

I like how it's more grayish and less blackish than a lot of navy blues, but it's still dark and dramatic.  I had Lowes color match it for me and got a can of the paint plus primer because it is such a dark color.  I really wanted to make custom colored chalkboard paint for this room, so I got flat finish paint.

Before I started painting, I skim-coated the walls in the room with drywall joint compound.  We have a pretty heavy orange peel texture on the walls throughout our house so I wanted to try and smooth that out a little bit so that it would be easier to write on the new chalkboard walls when they were finished.


I didn't go back and sand it before I painted because I wasn't too concerned about it being perfectly smooth --just smoother than orange peel.


To make the chalkboard paint, I mixed about half a box of Plaster of Paris with about 2 cups of water in a big bucket with a paint stirrer until all the lumps were gone.  Then I poured the entire can of paint into the bucket and stirred it really well.  I probably wasn't going to need the whole can, but I just didn't know how much I would need.  I wanted to make sure I mixed enough the first time so that I didn't have matching issues later on.  Mixing the plaster of Paris with water first ensures that there are no annoying lumps or grainy texture in your paint.

I rolled the paint on just like I would any other paint.  It took about 3 coats of the paint plus primer.  {I'm convinced that it easily would have been more like six without the addition of the primer.}  I'm really liking the way the color turned out.



It's a little bit preppy looking with the crisp white accent wall, but it's also really sophisticated.  So much more grown up than the pink and brown she had before.  {Keep in mind as you view photos these first few days that this is a room IN PROGRESS.  Various elements you may see will be much more refined by the end of the month, I promise.} 

What do you think about painting a room such a dark color?  "Yippee" or "Not for Me"?  Tomorrow I'll be sharing a really cool, affordable flooring solution.



3 comments:

  1. So cute!!!! That chalkboard headborad is to die for! So perfect for Sis. She's a lot of class with a little spunk :)

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  2. SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!!!! i would have never thought about that! (the headboard) and i wish my rooms looked so sophisticated where in progress or finished - you are doing an amazing job!

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  3. The navy blue looks amazing. Can't wait to see the next post. Dark colors are definitely for me. Yippee

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