Cabinet Door Chalkboard

A few months back I picked up some cabinet door fronts from the Habitat ReStore for $1 a piece. They had a lot of great detail and I could see repurposing them for signs. I've already made a sign with one of them, you can see what I did here .

With the other two I decided to make chalkboards. One for myself, and one for my Mommy. They were painted an ivory color, and while pretty they were pretty scratched up so I knew they needed to be painted. Since it's fall I decided to go with a darker color, and since we both tend to use a lot of red/brown/rust in our decorating I thought that I'd go that route.

I absolutely lOvE how these turned out. This was an attempt to sharpen my "faux" finish skills. I used about 5 different colors of paint altogether and went with a mottled finish on the front and kinda antiqued it up a bit. I know, it really doesn't make much sense but let me try and explain what I did.

The front has a sponged/mottled appearance. I mixed a rusty red and a nutmeg brown color and watered it down quite a bit and just sponged it on. I then took a clean washcloth and pressed along the surface, picking up some paint and texturing it a bit more.

The inside rim, closest to the chalkboard is solid acrylic paint, I used the same rust red color but didn't water it down.

The outer rim is ginger brown mixed with a bit of grey and the nutmeg brown. I didn't water this down either, and used a foam brush and gave it a even coat.

Then I washed over everything with metallic brown glaze that was heavily watered down. I love how it adds just a touch of sparkle and just perks up the overall look. I also made sure that the glaze settles in the crevices here and there to just make those lines really pronounced.

Super happy with the result. My Mom said she liked the pictures, hopefully she'll love it in person. $1 for the cabinet door front, everything else I already had on hand. That is my kind of project!!

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