“faux”– boarding

In the two and a half years I’ve been blogging, I’ve seen quite a few fads come & go. Some are understandable while others leave me saying, “Why? Just who thinks this thing/process/color is vital to the existence of every blogging (or Pinteresting) household?”

Having begun my teaching career in the pre-multimedia projector & pre-whiteboard dark ages; I pretty much had my fill of chalkboards, chalk, erasers & chalk dust… That could be why I don’t “get” the current infatuation with all things blackboard. Sure, I would love to get my hands on my grandfather’s 100 year old slate (& hand-carved pencil box!) but painting the side of my refrigerator or entire hallway with chalkboard paint is not quite to my liking.

But this time I have caved (on my own terms) to the decorating dictators who demand a chalkboard in every home. Here is how it came to be:

1. dumpster dive and find a down & out headboard
2. store headboard in garage for 7 (seven!) years
3. find headboard under subsequent crap junk finds
4. dust & displace spiders
5. paint blue
6. decide it needs to be antiqued with black glaze
7. store outside by front door a couple months to determine what the heck to make out of it (seriously!)
8. determine, well, the kitchen décor needs some class
9. paint upper panel with black craft paint
10. letter lower panel with gold Sharpie® Oil-Based Paint Pen
11. determine lettering would be improved with calligraphic border
12. squint and determine “blackboard” would also be improved with gold border
13. use white Sharpie® Oil-Based Paint Pen to impersonate chalk
14. be thankful it will only be viewed from a distance
15. stand on counter to place on upper cabinets & accessorize