I got a steal of a deal on a children’s art easel at a garage sale. $15 was what a mom was asking for it and I’m not one to barter. The only problem was the marker all over the wood and the chalk board.

I don’t really care about the dry erase board because if my kids had markers in their room you know I’d find marker in the most inconvenient places. Chalk is easy to clean, so I wanted to redo the board and make it even more fun. I had a bunch of magnets that weren’t getting used so I created this Magnetic Chalkboard to put on the easel and make it even better.

The first step was to clean up the marker that was all over the wood. All I used to clean it was some baking soda and water. If your marker isn’t coming off you can try toothpaste, or Orange Glo. The baking soda worked really well for everything except that there was a little permanent marker on the old chalk board and the chalk holder that I couldn’t get off. That was fine because I just covered both of those up.

For the chalk holder, I simply glued some scrapbook paper on and covered it with clear contact paper. It turned out really well and looks super cute in the kids’ room.

DIY Magnetic Chalk Board

If you’ve researched magnetic paint, and chalk paint, they can both be quite spendy. Then I would have to do multiple coats of both and who has time to do that? So I just bought a piece of sheet metal for close to $10 and made my own chalk paint to go on it. The kids joined in to help me paint.

Then I attached the metal sheet with heavy duty spray adhesive and held it in place with a small vice for a couple of hours to let it dry. If I did this again, I would paint the metal with primer first and then the chalk paint because I had to cover it with quite a few coats.

My children spend hours drawing and adding magnets to their scenes. It was well worth the effort, seeing all of their creative masterpieces. Have you made any chalk projects lately?

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