About two months ago we took our giant old Mac computer out of the office to make way for a new, much (much) smaller MacBook Pro. That giant computer took up a T O N of space and a lot of wall space. I never put anything on the wall next to it because it looked too crowded and now that it is gone it felt VERY empty. I had no idea what I wanted to do in that space, but I knew it needed something. I sat on it and waited and thought about other things I could do like a gallery wall or maybe changing the room’s layout a bit – BUT then the perfect photo came along and that was it. My mind was made up.
Tiffany at prettyrealblog shared a before and after of her kids’ play room on Instagram and along one side was a 3/4 chalkboard wall in a perfect vintage chalkboard green color. My husband had been talking about needing a whiteboard in the office for awhile now, but I wasn’t really loving that idea so a chalkboard wall was a nice concession – and thankfully, he loved the idea when I showed him the picture.
So off I went to Lowes to find paint. I used Valspar’s tintable chalkboard paint. It can be tinted to 250 of their colors and it was only about $14 for a quart. I picked ‘Hanging Vine’ for the color, because I thought it was the closest to an old chalkboard.
We taped off the section that we wanted, painted one coat and then bothered to read the paint can only to see that you need 24-hours between coats! Always read the directions before you start a project. I am notorious for being too excited and jumping into projects – do as I say, not as I do!
Once we got two coats up and we ripped off our Frog Tape, we moved the furniture back into place and then I started decorating. I bought this lamp from Target to put on the desk. I thought it had a nice industrial feel to go with our heirloom Herman Miller desk (you can read about here). I also added this Schoolhouse clock over the TV, because I wanted to give that area a little more interest and not just something that I avoided. I added a fun print that I bought in Chicago a couple of months ago, a painting my dad did for me of a building in Barcelona and then basically shopped our house and bookshelves for the rest.
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