Mirror Frame Into Antiqued Chalkboard

by Country Chic Paint

Robin from Redo It Yourself Inspirations turned a curbside find into this incredible antique chalkboard for her home with Liquorice, Devotion, and antiquing wax!

mirror frame into antiqued chalkboard, chalkboard paint, crafts, painting, repurposing upcycling, wall decor

This curbed mirror frame first appeared really nice so I took it home. I found out it was laminate. But, it would make a great chalkboard, regardless of the quality. I decided to make it appear antique so I sanded the clear finish a bit to take on the paint.

Then, sanded the roughed up spots and taped the framework for painting.

The manufactured board absorbed an entire bottle of brush on chalkboard paint AND two cans of chalkboard spray paint.

I planned on red for color. Using Devotion on just the frame itself, I thinned it with water so the wood grain showed slightly. For the top and the bottom of the frame, I chose Liquorice; also thinned with water for the same affect.

Worried that the laminate would warp or ripple, I watched it carefully in case I needed to save it.

But, the paint was perfect.

It covered the appliques nicely too.

Once dried, I softly sanded the entire mirror frame from top to bottom. Then accented the appliques by highlighting them with a foam sanding pad.

I touched up the raw areas with gel stain and wiped it off. For the Liquorice painted areas, I rubbed in clear wax to seal the paint, then used dark antiquing wax on the red paint.

Being a chalkboard, I felt it needed a tray of some sort. I had this scrap piece of a wooden fruit dish in my stash. I thought cutting it to attach it to the chalkboard would serve the purpose. Cutting it in half would create one cubby for business cards and the other to hold chalk.

The cuts had to be done at an angle to mount them flush on the chalkboard.

Doing just that, cutting from outside corner straight over to the other outside corner made it fit as a floating cubby. Sanding them slightly and applying dark wax before attaching them prevented any messes or mistakes on the board.

I used hot glue to apply them before screwing them onto the chalkboard was like having a helping hand.

When the wax dried enough to handle, I "broke in" the chalkboard paint.

Simply running the side of a chalk stick all over the chalkboard, then erasing a couple of times, made the surface ready for use. I wrote examples for many uses of this huge framed chalkboard.

Here is how it turned out: