chalkboard Dec 2014

I have wanted to make myself a chalkboard for some time now.  I have thought and thought about it. After my success in making the shelves I decided why not make it now. I had the picture of what I wanted in my mind it was just a matter of getting it out.  I headed to my favorite home improvement store Home Depot to get my supplies.  I bought 1 sheet of cabinet grade plywood, 1 sheet of OSB board which thankfully I got at  70% off because the corner was crushed.  I knew I needed to make this big to fit in the space that I wanted so I made it 4ft tall by 6ft wide/long.  I drew the design I wanted directly on my chalkboard to get the idea of how it would look.  To used a jigsaw to cut out the shape. I measured the center of my lengths and widths.  I cut out my first half of the length of the board then used that cut piece as my template so that everything would be the same. I used my circular saw to cut out the center where the chalkboard was to be.  I had to cut out the center to 1. give it dimension and 2. to make it lighter.  Remember this thing is large and I will be hanging it.
I used my osb board cut just larger than my center cut out and prepared and painted it in the chalkboard paint.  You need a smooth surface and make sure you prime it.  I used the roll on kind of paint because I had so much area to cover. After painting my frame and my chalkboard I attatched the OSB chalkboard to the back of my frame with small screws.
I found some cute embelishments at Hobby Lobby on clearance.  They were on stands but they are made out of a foam so they were light which was important in this project.  I unscrwed them from their stands and screwed them onto the ends of my frame.  Once it was all together it looked a little flat to me so I added cap casing around the inside of the frame to give it some depth.  This made it 100% better and the cap casing served as a catch for the chalk dust as well as a ledge to hold chalk if I want.
I was so happy with how it turned out.  I couldn't wait to doodle on it.  People that see it in person always exclaim how much bigger it is in person but that makes it all the more amazing.