How to Paint a Menu Chalkboard for the Kitchen Wall

Use an old frame to make a chalkboard menu for fun kitchen wall art.

You remember this lovely chalkboard menu hanging in my kitchen reveal a few weeks back? I didn’t buy it. Ha! You should know me better than that. And today, I am going to show you how to make this lovely piece of kitchen chalkboard art.

First, you need a frame for your chalkboard menu. I bought this shadowbox for $18 at my favorite non-thrift store, HomeGoods. Amazingly, the frame was already a color I loved so it was calling to me! You can always paint any frame you like to match. I loved that this was also a shadowbox because I can store the chalk right inside the frame and pops out from the wall.

The one hesitation I had was I had no idea what I would find underneath that burlap or how they had attached it. I told myself that in the worst case, I could rip out the back and replace it with a new backer board. I was pleasantly surprised that there was only a thin foam pad and some light adhesive spray on the back. I scraped off all the adhesive to prep the board for paint. I then painted two coats using Martha Stewart’s Black Chalkboard Paint. I painted under the edges with a brush but I found that using a small foam roller provided the best streak-less texture for the board.

Now that the chalkboard paint is dry, I made these designs with my cutting machine. The menu is from the silhouette store for $0.99 and I made the laurels myself. I cut them on wall vinyl so I could use them as a stencil.

So a word about the paint I used. The back of the board was slightly bumpy in texture so I found that I needed to use a slightly thicker paint. First, I tried using Martha Stewart’s Liquid chalk but that seeped under the edges and looked terrible. So I went back to my trusted friend: the multi-surface paint. Craft paint is resistant to water and cures after 21 days of air drying. This is good since I will most likely be cleaning the menu chalkboard every once in a while.

I let the Menu dry for two hours and then positioned the laurels on each side. In order to transfer vinyl without the image tearing or otherwise becoming distorted, I use painter’s tape. I have seen transfer paper specifically made for transferring vinyl. I would use that for a particularly intricate image but painter’s tape worked fine for this.

After drying overnight, the last step is to properly season your new chalkboard menu. This will give it that used look and add to the character. It really doesn’t look like a chalkboard until you do this step. I simply took a bit of chalk and rubbed it all over the chalkboard. I then took a soft cloth and wiped it off in circular motions. I did this a few times.

I am so happy with how the chalkboard menu project turned out! I think my gut was really right on this one that day in the store when I saw this frame. I would love to see if you make a chalkboard of your own!

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