Chalkboard wall

I've been thinking about this idea I saw on Pinterest - you can make chalkboard paint out of any color paint you want.  Now, up until that point I had never really thought about chalkboard paint much, but if I had I certainly would have been put off by the idea of having a random black square painted on a wall.  But the idea that I could have it match the rest of my house's decor ("decor" is used in a very liberal sense) had me quite intrigued.  Honestly, I think half of the things I try from the internet are just out of curiosity (hence the wine bottles as pendant lights).

1)  Pick the wall.  This depends highly only your planned usage.  I'd chosen the one between the kitchen and the garage, because it's sort of a lost space in our house, and yet we are always there.  Also because I'm repainting the kitchen, and it will be easy to use some leftover paint.  Anyway, in this location it can serve as grocery list/ phone number / phone messages / family schedule...

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2)  Pick the color.  As I mentioned above, I had some paint that I was planning to use on this wall anyway.  How hard could it be to just make it chalkboard paint?  Turns out, not hard.  I had the paint mixed up and the central part of the wall taped off and painted before the family was back from violin lessons.  Unfortunately, the paint was a little too light to be a very good chalkboard.  Also, I had (as suggested in one internet site) neatly taped off the section I planned to use - I had planned to just have the same shade of paint but in chalkboard.  Several problems:
     Once you add the grout to make the paint write-able, it also makes the paint a lot thicker.  So the neat tape lines I'd made to confine the chalkboard remained as oddly straight lines in the finished wall.  Sort of like the seams in painted-over wallpaper.
    The paint I had on-hand was egg-shell finish.  Great for scrub ability.  Crayon and pen comes right off. Chalk never even goes on.  I had to sand it down to rough up the finish enough to write on.  Still usable, but not as nice.  I wound up at the hardware store the next day to pick new paint.  Matte finish.  I chose a Shade darker than I normally would knowing that the chalk would show up better and that I planned on leaving a film of chalk dust on it most of the time any way.

3)  Sand down the wall to be painted.  This knocks down any texture on the wall - some anyway.  My wall still has significant texture - I was way too impatient to get it very smooth.  I bought both rough (to sand down the texture) and fine (to sand between coats of paint).  I wound up only using the rough.  Too impatient.  I did use hubby's power sander, but those hand held things would probably work fine.

4)  Magnetic primer - This was an impulse buy at the hardware store.  It should be helpful, though.  Nice to tack up papers I need to take to work and such.  I decided to only paint the middle section with it.  Too low is in dog tail territory, and too high is unreachable.  Learning from my previous tape lesson - I did NOT tape off the section to paint, and tried to put fewer coats on the outer edge to avoid the abrupt change in texture.  The box said "three thin coats are better than two thick ones" so that's what I did.  Came back to test it and a LIGHT magnet would barely stick.  So I put on two more, thick, coats. Magnets seems to stick okay with that.  Of note, the magnetic primer is NOT water soluble.  Pick up some mineral spirits and Simple Green (or other degreaser) at the hardware store.  AND make sure the rollers you get are the HARD FOAM ROLLER for super smooth surfaces.

5)  Chalkboard paint - Mix up 1 cup of your flat/matte latex paint with 2 TBS of non sanded grout.  Use some sort of mesh to sift the grout into the paint - this removes the little pebbles of grout that may not dissolve completely (I honestly don't know if this sifting is necessary, I didn't try it without).  Stir until most of the granules have dissolved.  It's okay if there's still some there.  They will all go away with the paint application.  (Warning - I don't know what's in that grout stuff.... but it REALLY stinks)

5) Tape off (or not - I tend to be less messy without the false security of damn leaky painters tape) baseboards and other walls.  Remove outlet covers and switch plates.  Cut in edges with a brush.  Then use your dense foam roller to apply 2 thin coats of paint to the entire surface.  You will notice that wherever you've placed the paint on thickly, you get islands of grout that's clumped together.  Use a lot of pressure and a lot of repetition to get these to go away.  They will (even my 5 year old got them to go away).  It also helps to use a bristle brush to stipple at the more stubborn patches so that the surface is smooth.

6)  After you get a smooth surface painted and dried (you probably should wait the recommended time on the paint can.... do as I say, not as I do).   Use the broad side of the sidewalk chalk to completely cover the chalkboard.  They say this is to prime it... whatever.  It give the wall an underlying patina.... very cool looking.

7)Wipe off the above with a slightly damp rag.  Then inscribe with your sagest advice....