When we first moved into our house, I knew I wanted to do something with the basement enclosure. That wall gets a lot of traffic, between little hands and paws and chairs bumping against it. It was originally painted to match the rest of the walls with a light yellow in a matte finish, making it almost impossible to clean.
I thought I’d cover it with chalkboard paint, but I loathe painting, even for a small project like this. I’m messy and I’m likely to give up halfway through. We’ve been here four years. If it hasn’t happened by now, it’s not gonna happen.
Then I discovered these convenient rolls of peel-and-stick chalkboard vinyl and the crafting gods smiled upon me.
So I bought three rolls (18 inches by 6 feet each) and went to work. This stuff was so much easier to apply than paint. The above probably took me an hour from start to finish, between measuring and cutting and making sure it went on without bubbles. I was initially concerned about the seams, but they barely show.
The only problem was one of the rolls of vinyl was slightly darker than the others, and it became very obvious when you put them next to each other; not sure why, since they came in the same shipment, but I put the darker pieces on the shorter side of the wall where it’s less visible.
Each roll came with chalk, but I also bought chalk markers to cut down on the dust. The kids have already covered their new “board” in scribbles, and I don’t care how dirty it gets because it wipes clean with a damp cloth.
Wow, I’ve reached “peak parent” with that last sentence, huh?
I have plenty of the vinyl left over for smaller projects; I may work on some simple chalkboard frames that I can doodle on or use for note-taking.
Above all, now I can say I did something for this house before my sabbatical ends!