How To Paint a Magnetic Chalkboard Wall
How To Paint a Magnetic Chalkboard Wall | A Chalkboard Wall
I’ve always wanted to do something like this but I didn’t think I would be doing it any time soon. But we took over one of the rooms at Paris’s house as a classroom and she suggested making a chalkboard wall so I went for it!
I decided that I didn’t want just a chalkboard wall, I also wanted it to be magnetic. Turns out, you can buy magnetic primer to put under any paint. I felt like this wasn’t rocket science and while I’m not a professional painter, I thought I could do a decent job. So today I’m sharing the step by step process and an IGTV video so you can see us painting the wall in a time lapse!
How To Paint a Magnetic Chalkboard Wall | Step 1
Step one is priming and prepping the wall. If your wall has ANY holes or bumps in it, this is the time to sand it out. My brother had used this room as an office several years ago and there were holes in the walls still from where he hung things. So I filled those in and sanded them down when it dried. Because of how both magnetic primer and chalkboard paint work, you want your wall to be as smooth as possible, otherwise you’re going to have a very bumpy and uneven board! I used this kit to fill the holes.
While the filled in holes dried, I taped the edges of the wall. Since the primer and chalkboard paint are both black, this is especially important to ensure you don’t get paint everywhere. I also laid down some sheets. Pro tip, double layer when it comes to your drop cloth. Single sheets aren’t going to cut it! When we painted the chalkboard coats, we used an old comforter as the drop cloth, which was perfect.
How To Paint a Magnetic Chalkboard Wall | Step 2
Step two is painting the magnetic coats. Magnetic primer is probably the weirdest paint I have ever worked with. It’s VERY thick and sprays everywhere even when using a roller. Be prepared for your arms to be covered in paint by the end and for it to require some scrubbing to get off.
You may notice from the pictures that I didn’t go all the way to the edges with the magnetic primer. I figured we wouldn’t need the very top of the wall or the bottom corner to be magnetic and I had only bought two cans of the primer. But it did take two full cans of primer to paint this wall. To get all of the paint out of the can, I had to use a gloved hand to wipe it out. I’m sure there is a tool I could have used but my hand worked just as well. I did also have to smooth out a few spot of the primer with my fingers on the wall. It could get clumpy in spots and I wanted it all to lay evenly. I did end up doing two coats of the primer to make sure that even covered by two coats of chalkboard paint, the wall would still be magnetic.
How To Paint a Magnetic Chalkboard Wall | Step 3
Step three is the chalkboard coats. For this step, I did have a helper in Jordan. She loved doing something so grown up. I taught her how to use the paint roller and even out the paint. There are a few stops on the adjoining wall that will need to be touched up (the result of having a seven year old help me) but we had lots of fun! After we did one coat, I added a second coat in order to even out where I had painted and where Jordan had painted. We did use the chalkboard paint to even out the edges that weren't coated by the magnetic primer.
How To Paint a Magnetic Chalkboard Wall | Step 4
Step four is curing the chalkboard. This step SHOULD NOT BE SKIPPED. I had read about this step but didn’t take it seriously at first. I have chalkboard stickers on the pillar in our family room. They aren’t cured, so why cure the wall! Mistake. A wall and a sticker are very different. We were able to salvage the wall though by doing this step so no worries! In order to cure the wall, you will need lots of white chalk. Be sure to open the windows when you do this because there will be dust everywhere! Rub the chalk all over the board, making the entire thing white. Then take a cloth and rub the chalk into the board. This will result in a used look but you need this in order to avoid having shadows of erased images and text later!
How To Paint a Magnetic Chalkboard Wall | A Final Note
Then you are done and free to cover your wall in text, lists, drawings and more. I do want to mention what kind of chalk/chalk markers to use. I did a lot of research and got these for our chalk boards in the family room. They erase very easily and are great markers. They were drying up so I got these from Target with a drive up pick up order. DO NOT BUY THESE CHALK MARKERS!! They say they are erasable, they are not. I should have just been patient and reordered the markers I knew would erase. I did end up doing that but not before writing on the wall with non erasable markers...
I’ve linked everything I used at the bottom of this post so you can find it all. I’ve also linked the markers and magnets we are using. You can find the IGTV video with the time lapse of us doing this project here. Let me know if you have any questions!
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