Chalk Board Paint

Thanks to my Little Picasso, I have learned that most paint colors and finishes can be used as a chalk board.

Allow me to demonstrate, but first, you should know that for some reason my camera refused to show the true colors of the paint on the walls, so you will just have to take my word for it.

Here is a light tan, flat finish with blue chalk

Using a regular chalk board eraser, the chalk came right off.

Here is a gray, glossy finish with yellow chalk

Again, I used a regular chalk board eraser, but if you look closely you can see that there is a slight mark left behind after I used the eraser.  A wet cloth took it right off.

And finally, an olive green, flat finish with white chalk (I promise that the paint is an olive green) Did anyone else make these awesome S's about 20 years ago?  My Trapper Keeper was covered in them because it was the only thing I could draw.

Comes right off.

Painted walls work so well as a chalk board that if I didn't have little kids watching my every move I would probably write on the wall at the family command center.

I saw a post about making your own chalk board paint that I wanted to try so I could see if it was better then my regular painted walls.

The directions are simple;
Pour 1 cup of paint into a container. Add 2 tablespoons of unsanded tile grout. Mix with a paint stirrer, carefully breaking up clumps.

I built this play kitchen for my kids for their Christmas gift and I wanted to put the chalk board paint on the fridge doors. (Please don't judge my craftsmanship. Due to some cheap wood and my lack of skills, this kitchen was doomed from the start.)

I headed to Lowe's to buy the grout. Because of some recent home repairs, and building this kitchen, I have recently spent countless hours in Lowe's.  I thought I knew the store better than Tim the Tool Man Taylor, but after wondering around the store like an idiot for awhile, an employee finally pointed me in the right direction. I found myself in a section that I didn't know existed.  I quickly realized that the section I know so well is actually the "Lowe's for dummies" section and I was now in the "Lowe's for people who actually know what they are doing" section.

I got to the aisle with tile grout, took one look around and realized that I was seriously out of my element.  

Do you remember that Hardee's/Carl's Jr commercial where a man is standing in the bread aisle looking completely lost and stressed out, then you hear a voice say "without us, some guys would starve."
I felt like that guy.

I put on my game face and started to read the labels. Meanwhile, my 2 year old daughter had dumped a box of bolts on the ground and was doing snow angles in them. I was really tempted to give the grout aisle the bird and join her. 

I finally picked a grout that I assumed was unsanded because it was the only one that didn't say that sand was in it. 

I mixed it into my paint and quickly saw that it was pretty gritty.  Looks like I got the wrong grout.  But I thought, what the heck, I'll paint it on then sand it off if needed.

After the paint dried on the doors it was very obvious that this was sanded grout.  I tried to write on it with chalk but the sand just ate up my chalk and left chalk dust on everything.  However, I decided to keep it because I like the texture that the sand gave the door. 

The Verdict: Inconclusive. I bought the wrong grout so I don't know how adding unsanded grout to paint compares to regular paint and I really don't want to buy another thing of grout just to test it on a piece of wood that I will toss.

So for now, my painted walls with no grout in them work just fine as a chalk board.