HOME :: CHALKBOARD wall in tween room

 

Hello everyone! Today I am finally sharing a special completed project from my daughter's tween bedroom makeover! As you know I have been working on her room and this is one of the requests that she had. She wanted to have a chalkboard wall somewhere in her room when we re-did it so I took the opportunity when she was gone one weekend to get it done and surprise her when she got home. I am not sure if she expected a typical black chalkboard wall, like the one I did on our pantry door, but nothing 'typical' was being done in this girls room! lol I decided to check out what colors were available to use for it and decided on a nice hot pink color. It definitely is anything but 'typical' for this custom chalkboard wall.

I am almost completely done with my daughter's tween room makeover and will be sharing the full reveal here (hopefully) soon as this makeover already seems like it's taken forever. Anyone else feel like that with room makeovers? If you follow me on Instagram, I am always sharing what I am working on at the moment and you may remember seeing a sneak peek of this wall that I did in her room. I LOVE the way it turned out and today I am going to share how I did it, how fairly easy it was and can I just say . . .  she LOVED it! YAY! That's all that really matters right? ;) 

Ok, so this is the space I decided would look great putting a chalkboard in. What you are looking at is a small space between her closet doors on the right and the door out of her room. Would I have loved to do a whole chalkboard wall in this color for her? Sure, but the room already had all of the other wall space spoken for so this is what I decided and I think it's perfect as it was long enough plus I didn't want to make it too tall as she couldn't reach high anyway. So let me tell you how I did it. First the before shot . . .
 

Step 1: I needed to decide on the shape I wanted to make it as I didn't want the typical chalkboard rectangle shape so I opted to mimic a shape that was already in her room just directly across the room next to her window: this vinyl wall decor I did awhile ago: 

Step 2: I grabbed a big piece of tissue paper, a pencil and decided to trace the outline to use as a template for my chalkboard wall design.

Step 3: This is the most important step as you need a way for the outline to go on the wall as an outline. Flip over your tissue paper and heavily color the line with a no. 2 pencil making it thicker than the original line on the opposite side that you traced.

Step 4: Hold up your tissue paper, tape it to the wall, have someone hold it - whatever you need to do to hold it in place and using a pencil trace over the line on the front and it should give you a rough outline transferred to the wall for you to use when you paint this shape in. I purposely darkened this photo below in the hopes that you can see what it should look like. 

In the spirit of 'keeping it real' when I went to transfer my shape to the wall, it was too wide for the space. Doh! So I basically ended up free handing most of it and making it work. Gotta do what you gotta do, am I right? ;)
 

Step 5: Carefully start painting in the outline of your image and then fill in until you have it completed. I usually do 3 coats when I am painting with chalkboard paint but that is my opinion but I am sure you could do less.

 

Step 6: Make sure to 'season' the chalkboard by using the side of a piece of chalk and rubbing it all over the painted surface of the chalkboard design. But please make sure to follow the directions and wait until the suggested drying time is complete before doing this.

 
That is it - you now have an amazing chalkboard wall! One thing I did was hung a small shelf under the chalkboard as it does a couple things: 1. it catches a lot of the chalk 'dust' which is a very good thing as that is easier to clean than carpet and 2. it serves as a place to hold the cute tin of chalk that she can use.

So what do you guys think? She absolutely loved it and I love running in her room while she is at school and writing a message to her plus when she has friends over, they love it too! 

Have you ever created a chalkboard wall in your home? I would love to know, so comment below as I am wanting to do another area as well and would love to hear what you like. Thanks for reading. xoxo

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HOME :: Tween Bedroom Wall Decor

Today I am sharing a special project for my HOME|MADE series!  As you know I am slowly working on re-doing every room in my condo and lately I am making some good progress! Today I have a 'sneak peek' into my daughter's bedroom makeover!  ;) 

In this room, I am planning on a couple little wall galleries but wanted some other kind of decor for the walls as well. At first, I was going to paint this huge chevron print on this back wall of her room but then decided against it. I decided upon using a vinyl design from my friends at Wallternatives because I've used them before on my craft room wall and still, am loving it! Plus this particular idea of mine I had, I wanted to use a product that I could 'work' with and know it would be doable. Even though this particular vinyl I used for the circles isn't "repositionable", I knew from experience that if I just "set" it on the wall first and not press it down, I could change the position and move it if necessary. Which is why I LOVE this product!

A simple circle pattern is what I chose to do on the corners of her room . . . 

  . . . and even on the other side in the corner of the same wall.

 

What is Wallternatives you ask? Here is a description straight from them:

"Wallternatives™ ARE the artful alternative to ordinary walls. At Wallternatives™, our goal is to provide easily applied Pattern for the People™. That’s you! And not just any old patterns! We want you to have your choice of the most delightful pattern options, offered across a variety of material options to suit every design demand and surface requirement. We are committed to empowering you to create a home that is more colorful, more fun, more expressive, and more designed around “you” without investing a lot of time!"

 
For the white circles, I chose a Designer Decal called "Dots vinyl pattern pack". I chose them in white for a subtle look and followed the directions on how to apply a Wallternatives Designer Vinyl Wall Decal on their site and didn't it turn out fab? I LOVE it!

 

I think the circle pattern turned out better than I thought but I bet you are wondering how I got those perfect circle patterns on the wall huh? Well I am the master of 'using what you have on hand' so I grabbed a paper lantern out of my studio and used it for a 'guide' for my circle patterns. I just applied one white vinyl circle at each seam and it worked out perfect! Pretty scientific huh!? ;)

The other vinyl item I added in her room is a large Fabric Wallprint that says 'Just Be Yourself' because I think that is such a good positive message for my daughter to see everyday when she gets up! Not to mention, how fun is this design? Amazing!

In case you have a "good eye", you will notice that I got the idea for the circle pattern on her wall from the curtains here in this photo. She loved this idea, since SHE picked out the curtains! ;)

I really love this little corner as I hung some tissue poms from the ceiling, moved her coat stand over here that holds all of her bags and then made a little reading nook for her where she can sit on her bean bag and pillows and read her little heart out under the window.

This one was even easier to put up than the circles as I just folded down the backing of the vinyl a couple inches, held it up to the wall, centered it and used the handy tool they included in my order, to smooth it down. I started at the top and worked my way down until the backing was completely off and my vinyl art was on the wall. EASY & done!

So what do you guys think? This is just the start of the posts that I will be sharing on this room so make sure you are following along so you don't miss the rest of the reveals I have planned! ;)

Have you ever decorated using vinyl on your walls? Which design do you like from their amazing selection? I would love to know, so comment below as I am wanting to do another area as well and would love to hear what you like. Thanks for reading. xoxo

Are you loving the "eye candy" here? 

Then join me over on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter & Instagram so you never miss out on an exclusive deal or any behind the scenes photos!

Check out my designs, artwork & decor in my Etsy shop! 

Looking forward to seeing you again! :)