Blackboardboard made with gray blackboard paintEveryone loves the novelty of a chalkboard surface, but most of the time you're limited to black or green. This recipe allows you to mix your own colors. For the pantry area, we mixed the chalkboard paint in 1-gallon batches.
1. Pour 1 cup of acrylic latex paint, in the color of your choice, into a clean, 1-gallon bucket.
2. Add 2 tablespoons of dry, unsanded tile grout mix into the paint, and mix until the paint is smooth and clump-free. (Use plain grout mix without added pigments to prevent color shifts. We used a kitchen whisk to mix our paint.) Repeat the mixing process until you have enough paint to complete your entire project.
3. If necessary, prepare the wall with a light sanding or priming. Apply the chalkboard mixture to any paintable surface with a roller or brush. (We used two coats of our chalkboard paint to build up a thick surface.)
4. Allow the paint to completely dry, then sand the surface with fine sandpaper until you achieve a texture that accepts chalk. Next, "color" the surface with the wide part of a piece of white chalk to get a chalkboard-like patina.
5. Wipe away excess chalk with a damp cloth.
Source: Cottage Living
