I have a 2 1/2-year-old granddaughter living here, and as a Veteran mom/daycare giver I try to choose my battles wisely. My wee rosebud is at the Ima write on all the walls stage.
So my thought is to paint part of a wall with blackboard paint. The last time I had this thought was 15 years ago when my first granddaughter reached this stage, but reviews on the paint were dismal. Iam hoping that it has been improved, does anyone have experience with this type of paint? Does anyone have suggestions? I would like to nip this in the bud!
The office building where I work has walls painted in “whiteboard” paint. They’re not all white, but you can write on them with dry erase markers. So maybe check that out as an option.
I haven’t used it myself, but I’ve heard good things about the Rustoleum acrylic blackboard paint, and from what my daughter’s friends have said, it sounds like a much better surface than what I encountered a couple of decades ago. Depending on how much tolerance you have for markers, you might look at whiteboard paint as well.
I’ve had a “chalkboard” painted on my wall with Valspar chalkboard paint for 10 years now. I put up a border using molding. It works great. I have re-painted it twice now but still works well. Initially it was for my 3 kids, but we now mostly use it for “adult” Pictionary at dinner parties.
I haven’t had preschoolers in the house for a very, very long time. By the time we got dry-erase markers and little whiteboards, they were old enough to not mark on furniture, so Ididn’t realize. I withdraw the suggestion!
I enjoy woodworking and made a small blackboard for the kitchen using blackboard paint over 1/4" plywood. It works great and it’s about 15 years old now. The instructions for the paint I used suggested “seasoning” the paint after it dries by rubbing chalk all over the board and working it in with an eraser.
I also found that there are different types of chalk and soft chalk works best for my board. I found that ‘dustless chalk’ produced poor writing results.
At my company’s old offices, we had conference rooms that had one wall covered with either WallPops or Writey whiteboard wallpaper. I think the problem of used ink-dust staining the carpet was avoided because we had a cleaning crew coming in every night and vacuuming every square inch of the building. Some people also liked to occasionally clean the boards (and storage trays) with damp (not wet) paper towels, but others said that using paper on the boards tended to build up scratches that retained old markings over time.
When we moved to new facilities, we installed giant flatscreen TVs instead of whiteboards.
Thank you for all the suggestions, I think I will try a couple of the ideas, not the whiteboard as she is not ready for markers.
My tolerance for that which can be cleaned is extensive, not so much for the permanent type. InternetLegend your suggestion is a great idea for advanced kids, but then, I would have to pry their phones out of their hands
Years ago I painted a section of the basement wall in my old house with Rustolium chalkboard paint. 2 coats. Followed the directions to a T and as mentioned before “seasoned” it. 1X2 wood boarder on 3 sides and chalk tray on the bottom. We had a couple of old school desks and the kids played school, especially during the winter when it was cold outside.
We rent the house out now and a family with 2 younger kids (4&6?) live there. I was in the basement a few weeks ago to fix the dryer vent and the chalkboard obviously is being used by them. It has held up for over 15 years.
Did it a long time ago in my basement office. I used the spray paint, don’t know if there’s a liquid version, but I couldn’t take the wall outside to spray it, so I’d suggest spray something else you can take outside, buy a blackboard, or wear a respirator and cover up anything important with drop clothes. Or buy a blackboard, or a whiteboard which probably costs much less. Acrylic sheets got kind of expensive after the high demand for germ barriers but you can write on those with white board markers also.
BTW: Is this the best way to deal with kids writing on walls? Beats me, I don’t remember me or my brothers doing it, my kids didn’t do it, I knew other kids did but didn’t understand why because there was always paper and other stuff to write on.