DIY Chalkboard 1st Birthday Photo Display

by Shelly@The Domestic Heart

My son turned one this month, so I had a lot of fun doing DIY projects for his party. One of them was this photo chalkboard displaying all of his monthly photos from his first year of life.
There are a ton of different ways of displaying first-year photos, and I really wanted something simple, multifunctional, and little bit rustic; a little chalkboard in the mix never hurts either!

diy chalkboard 1st birthday photo display, chalkboard paint, crafts, repurposing upcycling, windows

All I did was take an old, chippy, aqua window (isn’t it gorgeous??) I’ve had around for a while and turned it into a chalkboard. To do this I cleaned up the front of the glass, removing old paint and sticky spots. I covered the glass with newspaper and added a few coats of polyurethane to the frame to lock in the chipping paint, because I’m 99% sure that’s lead paint (note the gorgeous crackle finish!).

Next, I taped off the frame and sprayed the glass with Chalkboard Spray Paint. I let it dry between each coat and did 3 coats. Then I primed it with a piece of chalk and my new chalkboard was ready to go!

For the display I chose 12 photos that I loved and had them printed in black and white in 4×6 size. Then I simply taped them to the chalkboard using looped packing tape on the back of each photo. You can play around with the pattern of the photos, especially depending on the size of your chalkboard. I settled on this pattern of staggered rows.

Here’s a glimpse at the Hot Cocoa Bar with the photo display next to it: