Get Creative with Chalkboards: Versatile, Functional and Beautiful

Chalkboard paint is one of the greatest inventions of this era. Ok, I am exaggerating a bit, but I really, really love chalkboards! And so does everyone else.

They can be made out of anything and are super easy and cheap!

Yard Sale Frames

 If there are pictures in the frame, you can paint chalkboard paint right over the top.
If there is a mirror, like was the case in the blue carved frame, you can either paint over the mirror, or turn the mirror over and paint the back. This gives you the option of mirror or chalkboard!

Doors and Windows

They are the perfect shape and often have a natural space for a chalkboard, either a pane or panel.
And the knob is a perfect place to tie a piece of chalk .Great for messages, lists, anything you desire.

Tables

.

 Turn any table into a message spot, a place to keep kids happy while you are busy, or a serving table where you can write the name of the dish right on the table!

You probably have something hanging around the house just waiting for chalkboard paint!

A New Adventure: Oregon Street Antique Mall

I know it has been quite a while since I have posted, but between my life and computer issues, there has not been a spare minute! My life is still crazy, but at least the computer has been fixed!

A few weeks ago, I decided to commit to a booth at the Oregon Street Antique Mall in Redding, so I have been working like a crazy woman, painting, sewing, trying to finish so many projects! Actually, my family was getting a little crowded by all the great "finds" I kept bringing home and I figured I either had to stop thrifting or find a way to make them work for me.

So, on August 1, I loaded up some of my treaures.

Chalkboards

Chairs

Tables

Pictures

Pillows

And so much more!

And yet, there is still so much left at home!

Craft Room Part 3...The Finale

When my youngest son got married and my daughter moved into an apartment, I finally got a craft room again (see earlier posts, My New Craft Room: An Empty Nest Has its Upside and My New Craft Room...Continued). 

Once I had the living space of the room done, I was ready to tackle the work spaces.  I decided to set up my sewing machine and fabric in the closet, so, after Husband took off the doors, I took out the pole and dragged in an old computer desk that my son left behind. This desk was totally falling apart and had been sitting outside, waiting for a trip to the dump for months. My daughter and I had dragged it outside when Luke moved. It was  a cheap, rickety old thing, but I started wondering if I could salvage anything from it; maybe I could reuse the shelves, and the desktop was a good size for my sewing machine... then I wondered why I had to take it apart. So I dragged it inside by myself (I managed to get a large towel underneath it and dragged the towel, worked like a charm),  put a coat of white paint on it and wedged it into the closet.

 It was perfect for my sewing machine and boxes of thread, ribbons, and other items. No one even recognized it, including Luke, who had spent many hours sitting at it (supposedly doing homework, but in reality, listening to music).

Can you see the old desk on the left?

 

These are the shelves that held all of Luke's CDs and now hold thread, piping and ribbon.

 
Husband added more shelves on the other side of the desk and that gave it more stability.

Plus, they hold my fabric, at least some of it.

Across the room, I installed my daughter's table that she left behind. It has become my workspace.

 I needed more storage here, so I found an old board in the shed and cut it in half (it was already white, so I didn't even need to paint it). I went on a search for something I might already have to become the shelf supports. I found some coffee cans Husband was using/saving for screws and such. I found six in the garage and two more in the pantry (I couldn't wait for him to finish the coffee in these cans, so I emptied them into plastic containers).

I covered the cans with leftover pieces of burlap.

These shelves hold papers, tags, glue and other small items that I use a lot.

Paper storage from office supplies

A beautiful painted iron fence piece is a good spot to place inspiration pictures.

 This old cupboard once held towels in the bathroom, now it holds craft supplies.

So I managed to complete another room using my criteria of not buying anything except paint and, in this case, I didn't even have to do that! 

My New Craft Room... Continued

My new craft room had been taking shape in my head for a few months, but before I could make it a reality, my daughter moved back home. She moved in as my son moved out, just a few short weeks before his wedding. In fact, as he moved his boxes out of the room, she was painting.

I had been planning to paint the room yellow,  because I missed having a cheerful yellow room (I thought I was tired of yellow, but clearly, I was not).  Caitlin was good with that, so she chose the shade, a little stronger than I would have picked, but I thought I could live with it.

I enjoyed having her at home, because it had been about 5 years since she had really lived with us, but at the same time, I was anxious to get started on my craft room. Also, her stuff completely filled up our already crowded garage to the point that I could get to the laundry, but nothing else.

So, it was with mixed feelings that I helped her move four months later into her own place. But the very next day, I started moving the furniture into my new craft room. I started with a pair of bookcases that had been in my old house and fit perfectly on either side of the window in this room. They were already white with a light blue beadboard back. Perfect.

I filled them with a mix of quilts and craft books and fun things for my granddaughter who will be sharing the space with me.

I wanted to have a daybed in the room for my granddaughter to use or an occasional visitor. I started with a double mattress and boxspring on the floor because that's what I had.

Then one of the kids needed it; fortunately, about this time, a friend  gave me an old oak day bed with drawers that had belonged to her teenage son (no charge for the hatchet marks).

I

               I didn't get a shot of the before on the bed, but this is the matching bedside table,
  so you get the idea.

    I pulled off the funky wood piece across the tops of the drawers, sanded and painted it white, then added beadboard wallpaper and yellow polka dot knobs from World Market to the drawers.

I made a cover for the mattress out of 2 yardsale sheets. The three large pillows are the ones that used to be blue on the big leather couch that I recently slipcovered (Slipcovers Are The Answer to Just About Anything). The bolsters are stuffed with 2 old bed pillows. New covers for old decorative pillows complete the ensemble.

At this point, the color was really bothering me. It was just too strong. I considered repainting, but that's so much work! Then I remembered what I did when this same daughter wanted a pink bedroom about 20 years ago. The pink paint looked a little like Pepto Bismal (remember that?) when I got it on all four walls. So I did what I call a "white wash". I tried it here and it was just what was needed (more on this later). It made the yellow much softer.

It's now a quiet place for me to look through quilt books or have a tea party with Camille.

Next up: the work space. Finally!

Craft Room: An Empty Nest Has Its Upside

This year we became official empty-nesters. It has been coming for a while; one by one, each kid went off to college, lived in the dorms, but came home for vacations and summers. So their rooms remained theirs and I got the pleasure of cleaning them, but not using them.

 Then the oldest got married and I gained an office.    

           

   That was nice.

 Then the second moved out of the dorms and into an apartment. She took most of her furniture and some of her stuff, and I gained a guest room.

I could get used to this.

Then we sold the house and bought a smaller one. I lost my office, my guestroom, and my laundry/craft room.

 
 I set up a space in the garage for my sewing machine and fabric. It was often too cold or too hot to actually work there, but any port in a storm, right?

 After some consideration, the third bedroom became a bedroom/playroom for my grandson, rather than a grown-up guest room. It made me happy to have a totally kid space again and, frankly, I was hoping to lure him over as much as possible. And a grownup could still use it if necessary.

I  still had one kid living at home. Then he decided he wanted to get married. I thought about the fact that he still had 2 years of college to go, that he only had a part time job, that he had never lived away from home and was very young; then I thought about gaining a craft room. hmm...what to do?

      It was a lovely wedding.


Coming soon: my new craft room!