DIY Chalkboard Paint, does it really work?

My hardware store receipt, I love a cheap project!

A few blog posts ago I mentioned I was tired of the "kid-toy clutter" going on in my house. And I have been waiting to have extra money to make a play room for my kids. Well extra money has eluded me so I took matters into my own "DIY" hands and created a kid friendly space. It is in my unfinished basement so some of the walls are the concrete foundation walls. I thought a chalkboard wall might be fun and it seems to be all the rage lately. I saw a post on another blog (The Idea Room) and she made her own chalkboard paint for really cheap. I thought "What the heck, it's a concrete wall, it's not like you could ruin it!" So I went ahead and spent $5.43 at my local hardware store to buy a new plastic tray liner (to put the mixed paint in), some tile grout and two candy bars (the boy and I needed a treat) Oh...and the store gave me a free paint stir stick, nice folks. I already had some black paint left over from a previous project so this was a really cheap project. Here are some pictures of what I did today in my kids play room. It took me all of about an hour and managed to do it with an 18 month old not getting into my paint, I'm feeling really accomplished right now! I think it turned out looking good, I will let you know when it dries if it really worked. To see what to do to make your own paint visit the Idea Room at the link here: www.theidearoom.net/2010/09/make-chalk-rocks-and-homemade-chalk.html

This is what my project looks like: By the way my project took 8 Cups of leftover paint and 16 Tablespoons of grout to do this space on my wall. It mixes up pretty grainy. Hopefully that is okay when it dries, I stirred and stirred!

Paint is mixed and ready to go, seems kind of grainy, but we will see how it turns out. 

The Before: Ugly concrete wall. (With 18 month old head in photo, sorry...he moves fast!)

The After: Ugly concrete wall with chalkboard paint on it.I used a rough textured paint roller to apply. There are many holes to fill in on a concrete wall!

This is the smallest container of grout that was at my local hardware store. I used about 1/2 of the container.