Ideas for using chalkboards in a kids bedroom

August 5th, 2011 | Posted by ideaqueen in Decorating Tips - (1 Comments)

It’s got to be that it’s time for school to start soon. But I have chalkboards on the brain lately.

A friend of mine had a chalkboard across one end of her bedroom as a child. (She’s a really young friend.) It was a great way to provide creative space for her without taking up floor room. In my painting business, I did a custom child’s table with a chalkboard top that was totally cute and functional.

So how could you add a chalkboard to your child’s bedroom easily? If it’s a small room, you might not want a dedicated easel taking up floor space. Which takes us to vertical and horizontal surfaces and three different ways to do it.

Paint it

Like the examples I mentioned at the beginning, you can use chalkboard paint on just about any surface. (I remember my dad painting plywood to make chalkboards back when I was a kid, so this isn’t a new idea.)

Great places for applying are a low section of the wall or on a flat piece of furniture. Just keep in mind (since these won’t be moveable) to put the paint in places where your child can easily reach. I just ran across the line of FolkArt chalkboard paints, which come in all kinds of colors to make it easier to coordinate with your child’s room. Or look into tintable dhalkboard paint to get the exact right color you want.

Stick it

Easier and less messy would be looking into the myriad of chalkboard wall decals available, like the chalkboard truck in the picture.

Wall decals are easy to apply and remove, so there’s less commitment. And they come in all kinds of shapes like elephants and puzzle pieces and well, square, even. Most of the time they come in black, although I’ve found a few that have a choice of purple, pink or blue. Or ones like the truck where you have a choice of 14 colors for the non-chalkboard parts.

Oh – and I love this, but they’ve come out with chalkboard contact paper in a six-foot roll. I’m not sure how well it would work on a wall, but it would be an easy and inexpensive way to put a chalkboard on a smooth furniture surface.

Note that you do need a smooth surface for decals. If you have rough textured walls, head back up to the paint idea. You can paint an elephant, right?

Buy it

Last option would be to just buy a chalkboard, just not an easel style. You can get furniture with chalkboard sections already included, like the kids storage unit with chalkboard pictured here. Just a great way to do double duty.

It’s less interesting and cool, but there are options for getting framed chalkboards to hang on the wall. Some of these have the advantage of a tray for chalk and eraser and certainly great flexibility to move around the room as needed.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission, probably enough to get a stick of gum. I generally only recommend products or services on this blog that I would use personally and believe you will find cool as well. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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But I’m not artistic …

January 1st, 2011 | Posted by ideaqueen in Decorating Tips - (Comments Off)

I used to get this all the time back when I was running my painting business. People I knew were perfectly creative, capable and clever just started to freak out at the idea of drawing on the walls. (Hang over from childhood? Hmmm.)

No matter how artistic or creative or designer-y you feel, you can make great art happen in your child’s room. Here’s how:

1) Let others do the art. Professional designers did the graphics that cover the bedspread, adorn the rugs and make up the posters. They did all the work for you already! Keep the things you have to do yourself plain and let their artwork spice things up for you.

2) Let a professional do it. If you really, really, really, really want that mural of Pooh’s tree in The Hundred Acre Wood but are feeling really, really, really, really uncertain of your ability to make it happen, there are people for that. Like I used to be (and I did paint Pooh’s tree in a child’s room once). Start with your local paint store; they often have business cards for mural painters. For people who specialize in children’s rooms, look on boards at child-specific locations like gyms, resale shops and libraries.

3) Redefine artistic. A lot of the things I created were no more complicated than coloring in a coloring book. (In fact, there were times I would draw, then have other people – non-artists – paint.) The trick is to pick simple drawings, color them in, then draw the lines on afterward with a paint pen. Easy to stay in the lines if you draw them last!

A second way to redefine it is to let your child help. While they might quickly outgrown the kind of pictures they can draw, it will be fun for you together to create a picture for the wall. Make it temporary by painting canvases or paper that you can affix to the wall and take down later.

Artistic is all in the mind! You can do this!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission, probably enough to get a stick of gum. I generally only recommend products or services on this blog that I would use personally and believe you will find cool as well. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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