Creating a Chalkboard from a Mirror

Today, I’m excited to share how we created a chalkboard from a mirror.

As I mentioned yesterday, we are full steam ahead at my childhood home, Loblolly Manor, working feverishly to complete this house refresh by Mother’s Day. We’ve hit a few speed bumps in one of the guest rooms and in the laundry room too so fingers crossed we can get all the kinks worked out soon.

While we’re working those issues out I thought I would share the chalkboard we’ve been using in the dining room as a menu board for several years. My mom and I found a beautiful mirror at a thrift store for around $5 (those were the days, right?) and brought it home to use over the vanity in the master bathroom.

Well, before we could haul it from Bliss Barracks to Loblolly Manor, my Dad and brother in law accidently broke the mirror while working on another project in the garage. Even though we could no longer use the mirror, my Mom loved the shape of the frame and didn’t want to throw it away. So, she asked me to take what was leftover and make it into a chalkboard for the dining room.

Here’s a look at the frame after the broken mirror portion had been taken out…

I painted the frame with two coats of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Pure White then lightly distressed before painting the inside of the frame with chalkboard paint.

The inside of the mirror frame had a definite texture to it which doesn’t always show up in photos. I just wanted to put that out there in case you come across something similar if you decided to reuse a mirror frame too.

At first, we placed the chalkboard over the large buffet in the dining room at Loblolly and from spring time…

to the holidays, it has served us well for a few years.

We recently decided to add a hutch to the buffet in the dining room which meant the chalkboard we created from a mirror had to be relocated. The only catch was that we were still using it as a menu board which meant it had to stay in the dining room.

Given one side of the dining room is filled with nothing but windows and the other side houses the entry, our solution was to place the chalkboard behind the seating bench. Here’s a look at how that area looked before…

and after. This chalkboard is pretty heavy so my Dad used a stud finder and monkey hooks to make sure everything was anchored on the wall properly. Without a doubt, make sure to use caution and care any time you’re hanging heavy items like these on the wall.

The nice thing about this frame is that it has a bit of a ledge on it which helps to hold the chalk and eraser. When we’re ready to clean the chalkboard or change out the menu, we use a heavy-duty washcloth and water to “wipe” (it’s probably more like a scrub because of the texture) the words off. This is another reason you have to make sure the chalkboard is really secure on the wall.

Despite having broken beginnings, it’s been fun to use this chalkboard we created from a mirror in the dining room at Loblolly.

And bonus, there’s nothing like seeing chocolate cake on the menu! You can find out how we created this super simple moss centerpiece here if you’re interested.

See you guys back here tomorrow. We’ve been putting up shelves in the laundry room at Loblolly as we end week 5 of the One Room Challenge. It’s so exciting to see all the details finally coming together. Until next time, I’ll see you on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.

Many blessings,

CoCo