Homemade Chalkboard Paint Recipe

From Sherri Osborn, former About.com Guide

I have been having a lot of fun recently making different crafts using chalkboard paint, and while I was working on them, I thought it would be nice to have colors other than black. Yes, you can buy chalkboard paint in many different colors (compare prices); however, my dilemma was that I was impatient. I would have had to place an order online and wait for it to be delivered or drive almost 100 miles to the nearest craft store and hope they had a nice selection.

So instead, I started doing a little research on making my own. Pretty much every recipe I found called for a mixture of latex paint, un-sanded grout, and water. Of those three ingredients, I had water so I decided to do a little experimenting with what I did have on hand. I was happy with the results. I know the paint in the picture might not look too exciting... Perhaps I should have made a color different than gray, but that is the color I needed for this chalkboard storage box project.

• Age Guideline: 5 Years and Up
• Time Required: 60 minutes (Does not include drying time)

The above age and time guidelines are estimates. This project can be modified to suit other ages and may take more or less time depending on your circumstances.

Materials Needed:

• Plaster of Paris
• Acrylic Paint
• Water
• Measuring Spoon or Cup
• Bowl
• Stir stick or Spoon

Instructions:

After doing some experimentation, the combination I found that worked the best seemed to be 3 parts paint, 2 parts Plaster of Paris, and 1 part water.

Start out by measuring your Plaster of Paris into a bowl (I used 2 tablespoons). I then added 1 tablespoon of water. Mix this until you get out all of the lumps. Once I had a smooth mixture, I added three tablespoons of gray acrylic paint. Again, mix it well.

You should now be ready to paint. Test your paint on something just to see if you are comfortable with the consistency. This mixture worked well for me, but if you think it is too thick, feel free to add a little water or even paint.

I painted my storage box using 3 coats of this homemade chalkboard paint. My paint dried very quickly. Cover your paint tightly while you are waiting for the item to dry. You will want to use your chalkboard paint as quickly as you can before it hardens. I let my paint dry over night before I tried to write on it.

When using store bought chalkboard paint, the can suggests you condition it by rubbing the side of the chalk over it and then wiping it off. I did the same with my homemade paint too, mainly because I figured it couldn't hurt.