Look At Me Being All Crafty

Okay, if you travel any of the same circles in the blogosphere as I do, then you have been here once or fifty times. And if you have set foot in my home, you can't miss her influence (scroll down to the second picture on her page) on my slowly evolving living room. If I could, I would pretty much pick up the very most part of her living room and stretch it into mine. Those curtains with the horizontal stripes? Lurve.

And so it was because of Nester and her loverly living room that I decided I had to have me one of those chalkboards with a pretty frame in my own living room. The decision made, the search began. I yard-saled and thrift stored all summer long for the perfect frame. I found many that I liked, several I even purchased with other ideas in mind, but never landed on my idea of perfection.

Alas, the leaves started to fall and I still had naked walls.

However...

My Mom had bought a mirror that she wasn't sure what to do with. So she brought it to me. I wasn't in love with it, and it sat. Until my sister and her husband bought a house. She thought the mirror was a perfect fit for her living room and offered me one that she had previously had hanging in her dining room. I had vauge-ish ideas about what to do with that mirror and it sat around for several weeks before inspiration struck.


Now, I had intended this to be a tutorial, but pregnancy brain kicked in and I forgot to put the memory card in the camera and didn't notice until halfway through the process!

And so, that is how it is that you will only get half the images I had intended.

I used chalkboard paint and a small foam paint roller to apply the chalkboard paint straight onto the mirror. It felt kind of funny, painting a mirror, and I wasn't at all sure how things would turn out.


Along about the time the second coat started drying good, I noticed I had painted a hair onto the mirror. I stood there and debated leaving that little piece of myself in the paint. 'Good sense' took over and I decided to take it out of the paint. It wasn't an easy task and I left quite a smudge in the paint. In fact, the 'smudge' was big enough that I could see my eyeball reflected in the mirror.

The mirror that was supposed to be painted black.

I think if you don't paint stray hairs onto the surface, it would take three good coats. It took me about six to get it smoothed out.

I allowed the paint to dry for a few days. (read, I got busy with other things and forgot about it for a week) Then I used painters tape and reversed taped the mirror chalkboard. Next, I took a garbage bag and cut it to more or less fit over the chalkboard surface and then taped it down on top of the tape I originally ran around the edge, being sure that nothing was sticking out to interfere with spray paint getting on the edge of the frame.

I didn't take a picture because I didn't. I hope that word picture up there will carry you through.

I used Heirloom White to spray paint the plastic gold frame with. Two or three coats later (I can't ever tell how many true coats I use when wielding a spray paint can) and I was content with the outcome.


I then took my beautimus chalkboard inside (okay, after it dried) and scrawled on it and had Joshua help me hang it. You can see the hangers peeking out from the top, and one day, in the near-ish future, I may get around to adjusting things so that you can't see those hangers.

For now, I am content to sit on the hearth and gaze at the absolute onliest thing gracing the ginormous wall in my living room.

And scheme about what all I want surrounding it...