DIY Framed Chalkboard Wall

When we first saw our house, I immediately began envisioning things I would do in each of the rooms.  One room on our must have list was a breakfast nook.  I'm not sure why, but I have always dreamed of having a little area off the kitchen that was less formal than the dining room to eat breakfast (obviously), do homework with our kids (presuming at the time I would have at least 3 children haha), and just a nice hang out spot to gather without being stuffed in the kitchen.  And this house had just that with a 2 side by side windows looking into our backyard...it's quite lovely.  It also has this one wall that I knew would be perfect for a chalkboard, which is what we did!

Instead of building a chalkboard and then hanging it, I decided to tape it off and paint directly onto the wall.  This would not be that hard IF you had straight eyes (I can't hang something straight to save my life and didn't have a level the day I decided to do this) and you painted the chalkboard paint AFTER you painted the rest of the walls.  I however hadn't decided on a paint color for that area and had already started/finished painting the chalkboard wall in the bar so I didn't want to dirty up another roller or pan and just went for it.  I would have a picture inserted [HERE] however it has disappeared from my hard drive...

Initially I wasn't planning to add trim around the chalkboard, but once it was all done and I realized that it was slightly crooked and I didn't like the jagged edges of the paint from the textured wall I decided it needed to be "framed".  So here's how it goes!

Materials:

• 3 pieces of 1x2 pine...as straight as you can get find
• Minwax stain in Early American
• Minwax Finishing Wax Paste
• Lint free cloths 
• Size 6 finishing nails (they only come in a 1 lbs. box)

Step 1:
Paint your chalkboard.

Step 2:
Measure the area you painted and decide which boards are going to be on the outside.  For ours, the long (vertical) sides are on the outside and the short (horizontal) sides are on the inside.  We didn't do any mitered corners to make it look less polished and more farmhouse.

Step 3:
Cut your 1x2 boards to the length you need.

Step 4:

Lightly sand to remove any splinters and then rub the stain onto the boards.  I let the stain sit for about an hour before rubbing on another layer.  I didn't rub it back off with a clean cloth though because it was the perfect color for us.

Step 5:
Let it dry then rub on the Finishing Wax.  Let that dry.

Step 6:
Once dry (you'll need at least 2 sets of hands for this part), place the boards around in the order you want them.  Again we didn't do corner cuts so our boards fit inside/against each other.

Step 7:
Take your finishing nails and hammer them into the boards.  We used 3 nails on the short boards, and 4 on the long ones.  This is why you want your boards to be as straight as possible, because they will bow away from the wall a little.

Optional:
Minwax makes a filler that matches their stains you can use to fill the holes.  But because the finishing nails have no heads they aren't super noticeable in the boards so we decided to skip this step for now.  It just adds a little more rustic character :)

I hope you enjoyed this little DIY, and as always, thanks for stoppin by!