I’m going to start off by saying this took far longer than I thought it would, but that’s more because of my extreme laziness than anything else!
At around December last year, I got myself a new bedside table and was left with the dilemma of what to do with my old one. I could have easily thrown it out, I was also very, very tempted just to burn it and roast marshmallows because, isn’t that everybody’s life goal?
But no. I decided to try and be creative in the one weekend I had free in December, which was an interesting change from the norm. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, other than I had the urge to use blackboard paint that I’d recently seen in Wilkinson’s.
That basically made up my mind for me. I was going to make a chalkboard (blackboard?). I hurried to Wilko and got myself a couple of brushes, the blackboard paint, a nice shade of grey I’d seen and of course some chalk. Once I got home I realised that I would probably need some way to hang my chalkboard-to-be on the wall, so ran back and got myself some command strips, and a couple of screws for good measure.
One thing I was lucky to have in the house was a battery pack of fairy lights. While playing around with shapes, I finally decided what I wanted to do.
I started by breaking the top of the table off. I didn’t have any tools, so it was literally a case of my straining agains the wood until it ripped in my hands. My only tool was a single screwdriver, not the most useful thing.
The top was pretty easy, I basically made a grey frame around what was going to be the blackboard, then waited for it to dry, covered in, and filled in the gaps.
The blackboard paint is really fun. It is really viscous and shiny but then quickly dries to become smooth and matte. I had to resist the urge to paint everything in my room with it.
The next part was the hardest.
With the legs from the table, I wanted to create a hashtag symbol, and have built in lights. I was lucky that the legs already had a few holes in them from previous screws, so I only had to create a couple more (taking ages with a single screwdriver… I can see why the drill was invented…).
The holes had to be made slightly bigger – and again I just did this by wiggling around the screwdriver and tearing the wood slightly, just so that each hole was the perfect fit for one of my fairy light bulbs.
I screwed the legs of the board together and then painted the hashtag with the blackboard paint. That went pretty well!
Putting the hashtag together with the board proved more challenging than I originally thought. I tried so many different things but it kept falling off and coming apart. Eventually, I just screwed in some giant screws and now it’s perfect!
…maybe not perfect… the hashtag is wonky. It’s… ‘shabby chic’…
Now I’m left with this lovely cross over between art and utility, and really look forward to using it often :) If you’re thinking about throwing out any old furniture, consider trying something completely new with it rather than just trashing it (or burning it…), because it really can bring a whole new dimension to your life.
DIY: Up-cycled Chalkboard I'm going to start off by saying this took far longer than I thought it would, but that's more because of my extreme laziness than anything else!
