DIY Chalkboard Place Mats

DIY Chalkboard Place Mats for Christmas
Today I will be sharing another way to up-cycle something that you may have at home already. These old place mats were transformed into adorable DIY chalkboard place mats which are perfect for the holiday season or even year round. I am sure these would be a hit with kids as well!
Materials Used:


Place mats


All purpose primer


Rust-Oleum Chalkboard Paint


Small paint roller and tray


The place mats that I used were actually given to me by my neighbor and had never been used. If your place mats have been used, make sure to clean and dry each one thoroughly, so the paint has a good surface to stick to. To begin re-purposing my place mats, I applied one coat of all purpose primer using a roller. Since the place mats had a shiny surface on them, this gave the chalkboard paint a better surface to stick to. Once the primer was dry, I applied one coat of chalkboard paint using the roller and then a second coat after the paint had dried. I accidentally stacked my place mats on top of one another before they were completely dry and this peeled off some of the paint, which meant a third coat was needed. I recommend leaving your place mats to dry overnight before moving them or stacking them on top of each other, or else you might end up like I did painting on a third coat the next day! What a bummer, but totally worth it!
After you are completely positive that your place mats or 100% dry, then you just have to do one more thing to prepare them for decorating and that is to “prime” them, similarly to what I did when I made my Spring Chalkboard. Take a white piece of chalk and lay it flat on it’s side, then cover the entire surface of your place mat with chalk. It doesn’t matter which direction you go in, just make sure to cover the entire surface. Using a piece of paper towel wipe off the chalk. You will notice your place mats now look like a well used chalkboard and they are ready to decorate!
Get creative with your designs, I think it would be fun for kids to use and of course adults as well! ;) They kind of remind of those restaurants where you write on the table but way cuter than brown paper!
Thanks so much for stopping by, I hope that you enjoyed the beginning of many holiday DIY projects that you have to look forward to from JST Design over the next few week leading up to Christmas! Stop by later this week for a Christmas snowflake ornament tutorial using and old book, I can’t wait to share it with you! :)
Jillian @ JST Design
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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