DIY Outdoor Chalkboard

When we moved to North Carolina, we were in the middle of transitioning out of the military. We had moved from Maryland and had no knowledge of the area we were moving to. We basically went were the job wanted us.

We moved into a quaint little cottage house only miles from the beach. We were falling in love with our new town.

While being in our rental, we have had to think of creative ways to make this house our home, while staying within the rules of our rental agency.  We have quite a small backyard with hardly any grassy area, thank goodness for the park across the street or my kids would be driving me bonkers.

The weather stays quite warm on the coast and I believe kids should stay outside, playing as much as possible but I also needed some ideas to help keep them busy in the small amount of yard we have. I came across this on pinterest and my children fell in love.  This is definitely on our weekend to-do list

here is what you are going to need:

• a 4x6 sheet of plywood…you can get a piece as large or as small as you want
• outdoor paint in the color that you want
• non-sanded grout
• mixing bucket
• paintbrush

*you can totally by a can of chalkboard paint, but with some of it retailing around $25-$30 and only in select colors, with buying the ingredients to make your own you are able to customize the color and have a lot more paint handy for future projects.

First you are going to mix up your chalkboard paint. A good ratio would be 1 part grout to 8 parts paint. So for a large project like this I would mix 1 cup of grout to ½ gallon of paint. Mix, mix, mix your heart out and make sure that the grout is completely incorporated into the paint.

Once your paint is thoroughly mixed, paint your board. Give it two coats, letting it dry in-between coats.

You need to condition your chalkboard. Get it ready by rubbing the whole board down with chalk, then wiping it off with a dry cloth in circular motions.

Hang it up on your fence, deck rails, wherever you have room! Get ready to enjoy many hours outdoors with your children.