Lets talk about FLAT paint people – have you ever seen FLAT paint? It is exactly like it sounds, paint that has no shine or gloss. This paint does not really reflect any light and it almost looks velvety, like a delicious cake. In a house owned by a 60+ year old, it is decedant and luxurious. In a home with a 4 + 6 year old boys, it means green walls covered in little boys’ names in permanent marker, lip gloss’ed WAYTT, and every bit of dirt, every fingerprint and smudge, and EVERY. SINGLE. DENT (from thrown nerf guns) that can possibly accumulate in ONE YEAR. Want to paint it yet?? For children’s rooms – picking an easy to clean paint is CRUCIAL – flat paint not only gathers all the nasties that little boys can create, but it is IMPOSSIBLE TO CLEAN AFTERWARDS!!! Fun, right??
“For childrens’ rooms – picking an easy to clean paint is CRUCIAL…”
This room was a simple, spackle, tape, and PAINT – I had to be careful to paint ALL of the green and REMOVED ALL of the METAL faceplates first – we plan on replacing these outlets shortly – so painting over the outlets (again) was not in the cards!
All of the paint in the boys’ room is an off white eggshell – except for ONE – since these two have a penchant for coloring their name and little people everywhere (literally signing their work) another CHALKBOARD was necessary.
People ask me HOW to paint a BLACK chalk board and I always answer the same way – I follow the instructions on the back of the can *wink. That said, here are the steps I followed (for a black chalkboard paint the Rustoleum quart of paint gives you specific and almost identical instructions FYI). Also, good to note – the BLACK chalkboard steps are slightly different than the colored chalkboard of my earlier post – rule of thumb – read the can OR ask the paint techs at the stores you buy your paint at!
DIY Chalkboard STEPS
- Tape off a square or area for the chalkboard then it sand lightly.
- Paint an even coat of chalkboard paint from top to bottom or bottom to top (try not to stop in the middle) – keep an eye on paint on the roller – not too much 😉
- Wait FOUR hours repeat step 2
- Wait FOUR hours repeat step 2
- Wait THREE days
- Take a piece white chalk on its side (doesn’t need to be solidly colored in, just an overall coating of chalk), COLOR ALL OVER YOUR DANG CHALKBOARD. Yes – all over it, being mindful not to scratch or push too hard!!! Once you’ve done this, you can take a DRY towel and rub the chalk all around pushing it into places you didn’t get and also sort of erasing it at the same time. Once you’ve done this – it’s ready!!
- Any time you WET wash your chalkboard dry completely and repeat step six to avoid chalk staining! The “wait for it to dry, then put a layer of chalk all over it” allows the chalk to work on the board with ease!
While the paint dried on the left and after THREE days of curing on the right. The carpet is still green but we have enought accents and CLEANABLE paint to make it work now! Finishing touches in this room were some IKEA wooden shelves spray painted with dark grey chalkboard paint and an ALDI woven rug!
So the boys room is finally done! Clean and bright with some functional additions. They have more room for toys in their toy box because of these action figures new home and with a stern “YOU WILL NOT CLIMB THESE” conversation, I think they might even stay put!
there are more rooms stricken with the FLAT paint in this house – and in the upstairs bathroom, they got reeaal fancy – alternating stripes of glossy green with flat green every 6 inches. Believe it! For this room, I was given a glossier “trim” paint that has a slight sheen and perfect for a bathroom that needs to be wiped down!
Now, I wasn’t sure paint would cover the alternating flat and glossy areas. As I began the process, it was concerning – since the stripes still showed after 1 coat. My husband said just keep painting – so I did! Over a period of a few days, I would paint after work, before breakfast, etc – letting all the paint layers completely dry between coats. The end result was a cleaner, less stripy bathroom with a little less flat green in our home.
Guys, we still have more green paint in this house BUT, there are only 24 hours in each day and I have more paint to use so stay tuned!
RMDY Yoga 