Tag Archives: paint

8 fun Chalk Paint ideas!

8 Fun Chalkboard Paint Ideas

- posted by Rose Marion

Chalkboard paint is a hot home decorating secret! It’s all over Pinterest.

Chalk and blackboards go together – but you don’t have to be limited to black paint! With our Valspar paint line, we can color match your paint, swatches, or color scheme, and mix you up a pint, quart, or gallon of the chalkboard paint you want!

At the Make & Take we had at the Smith & Edwards Paint Department last Saturday, you could paint your own 12×12″ board with chalk paint to take home and demo on your walls…. or let your kids try out what they want in their room!

Girls trying out chalk paint at Smith and Edwards

Taylor, Jaycee, and Payton painting their own Chalk Paint boards at Smith & Edwards

Plus, we had samples of awesome FrogTape Shape Tape to create patterns. This Frog Tape is like painter’s tape gone to art school. No more plain lines – now you can make scallops, zig zags, and ruffles in PERFECT precision.
Frog Tape Shape Tape
And this tape is really good at preventing bleed-through so you have crisp contrast, not little droplets showing through.

Revealing the waves under the Shape Tape Frog Tape

Look at those waves!

So thanks to the great creative ideas from the crafters who came to our demo, and the crafty people in our Paint department, here are 8 fun chalkboard paint ideas you can try at your home. Try doing two-tone, too! These aren’t all home improvement ideas, either – these are great ideas for a family activity, hosting sleepovers, or birthday parties, too.

8 Fun Chalkboard Paint Ideas

1. Chalkboard Paint Pixie Dust Container

Pixie Dust Chalk Container
Does your 4-year-old need cheering up on a rainy day? She’d love to play with this Pixie Dust container! It could have anything in it – maybe even T-Rex Growth Potion for your dino-minded boy. Just take an aluminum container, punch holes in it (hammer and a nailpunch, or a Dremel), and then a coat of chalk paint. Works great for making pretend sprinkle jars for playing house, too!

2. Chalk Paint Spice Jars (or Sprinkle of Awesome)

Much like pixie dust containers, simply paint Chalk Paint on your glass spice jars to label them. When you use all the spices, rinse them out and write the new spice on it.
Chalk Paint Spice Jar
Remember, we can mix up your chalk paint in any color – so we can match your kitchen accent color, trim, or favorite plates!

This would be so cute for giving jams in Mason jars, or for your flour & sugar bins!

3. Chalk Paint Flowerpot

Chalk Paint Flower Pot
Label the seeds you’re starting in your flowerpot by laying down some chalkboard paint on a terra cotta pot. Or, if you’re like me, remind yourself how often to water your plants!

4. Chalk Paint Doorknob Hangers

Chalk Painted Door Hanger at Smith & Edwards

Boys Stay Out!

These are great for your middle schoolers! Take a wooden doorhanger blank and your kids can paint them in their favorite colors. Boys keep out!

5. Chalk Paint Clipboard

Out of all those on the list, Smith & Edwards is most likely to have #3

Kids can have fun making ….creative grocery lists! Y’know, we might have #3, let me go check in the back.

Future architects will have fun planning their Lego structures with the help of a clipboard. No more looking for scrap paper: they can sketch blueprints right on the board.

Look at that cool pattern on the back made with Frog Tape shapes!
Scallop Frog Tape Shape Tape Patterns on Clipboard
We’ve got clipboards right here for you in the store.

6. Kid’s Chalkboard Tray for Car Rides

Better than an Etch-a-Sketch, encourage your children’s love for drawing with an aluminum tray painted in their favorite color. The raised sides will keep the chalk from rolling off. They can help you keep track of groceries, draw maps, play hangman with their brother, and practice writing.
Aluminum tray with Chalk Paint

This is a 12×9 aluminum cookie sheet that Brenda painted with a mauve chalk paint. Let your kids play on the board with chalk in the back seat, and a slightly-damp paper towel works great to erase the chalk.

7. Swatch for Painting with Chalk Paint

Chalk paint sample swatch
Thinking of painting a wall, toy chest, treehouse, or trim with chalk paint? How about using Frog Tape Shape Tape in your room? Take a 12×12″ board like the ones we have and try it out.

8. Kitchen Chalk Noteboard

Keep the family on track with a wooden noteboard painted with chalk paint!
Chalk Paint Bulletin Board
Take it one step further with scrapbooking paper and you can have a framed noteboard.

Excited? Come on in to Smith & Edwards’ Paint department and we’ll mix you up any color of chalk paint you like to take home with you!

And we’ll have to do another demo day sometime – it was sure fun!
Chalk Paint and FrogTape Shape Tape Demo at Smith and Edwards

Bonus: Chalk Paint Furniture

Speaking of what to do with this fun paint… How about furniture? We’ve heard of folks painting an old desk – the entire desktop! Maybe your kitchen table or your old desk have some chips in it, or just could use a touchup. Or how about the kids’ table?

To paint a desk: Just put some chalk paint down (you could mix baking soda in it first for extra texture). Then when the paint’s dry, rough it up some with fine sandpaper to give it an antiqued look, and buff it with beeswax (we recommend Johnson’s or Howards Beeswax, we’ve got them on aisle 17) to seal it.

Then the kids can use chalk to play and draw! Or how about writing their names and drawing their own placemats right there on the kitchen table?

The chalk paint you want – in the right color, for the right price

We’ve seen chalkboard paint going for as much as $35 a quart – we’ll beat that price by 33%. Brenda got a quart of the blue paint that she’s used on several projects. She’s been painting and painting with it and she’s still got most of it left! So just a quart of this will last you a long ways.

You don’t have to paint a whole room with chalk paint. It’s best in small, special areas.

Looking even more ideas? Check out some REALLY inventive ideas at brit.co – including chalkboard pumpkins!

Amazing Chalk Paint Make and Take at Smith and Edwards
Remember we can make you up chalk paint in ANY color, so bring in your ideas, Pinterest boards, or paint swatches and let us help you get the chalk paint you’re looking for at Smith & Edwards’ Paint Department off I-15 in Farr West, Utah.

Watch our Events Calendar for classes, demos, make & takes, and more FREE & FUN events at Smith & Edwards!

Clark and Kensington paint palettes at Smith and Edwards

Rejuvenate your Home with new Paint Palettes!

- posted by Rose Marion

Lots of hardware and home improvement stores have paint departments with all those wonderful rainbows of paint chips.

If you’re building your own home, starting to personalize your new house, or finally getting around to touching up after the kids have flown the nest – you know how important those color swatches are, and how much time you can spend with them!

Picking Paint Palettes

One of my favorite things to do when I’m trying to pick paint colors – it’s a long-term decision! – is go to Pinterest and search for paint color palettes and inspiration. I love the colors people have already put together – much better than trying to hope the colors I choose will play nicely together!

And you know what? The paint counter at Smith & Edwards has several color palettes already created in gorgeous combinations with paint chips right in the palette! You’ve got to come in and see them! Take home a sample and tack it to the wall so you can visualize how your living room would look in a brand new coat of paint.

Valspar color trio palettes at Smith & Edwards

Smith & Edwards’ new Valspar color trio palettes

Clark and Kensington paint palettes at Smith and Edwards

Clark+Kensington paint chips, top, and room color paint palettes

Perfect "mood" palettes from Clark and Kensington at Smith & Edwards

Perfect “mood” palettes from Clark and Kensington

This one’s my favorite – I’m picking colors for our living room and dining room, and this is what I’m settled on: a vanilla-cream on the walls, and white trim. Look at the great options I can use for accents!

Yellow color palette from Clark and Kensington at Smith and Edwards for Rose's living room

Plus I can take this palette when I’m shopping for bookshelves, choosing photos to hang on the walls, and picking out our new couch to make sure everything complements the room.

Smith & Edwards Paint Department gets a Makeover!

These new color palettes are just a tiny part of the big changes in our paint department! That’s right, after years of helping thousands of Utah homeowners improve their home’s appearance – we’ve gotten a makeover, too!

Check out the amazing new lighting – much easier to see true colors and match paints:
(old and new paint counter)

Before…
Old Paint Department at Smith & Edwards

After…

Smith & Edwards Clark+Kensington Paints

Smith and Edwards Paint Studio

Smith and Edwards Valspar Paints

It’s so bright and clean… we love it! How about you?

The reason for our remodel? We’ve brought in a new line of paint, Valspar, which is a premium paint. It’s got amazing pigments that give you brighter, more vibrant color!

Valspar comes in 2 grades. Aspire is a mid grade paint that’s similar to Clark+Kensington and is pretty durable. Optimus is the high-end Valspar paint and primer, and it’s incredibly durable. You can clean lipstick off flat Optimus without leaving a trace! – and it has great coverage.

Valspar Paints at Smith & Edwards

Randy, our Paint department manager, will be happy to help you pick the perfect grade of paint!

And because they’re part of the same family, we can exactly color-match Valspar to Clark+Kensington and Ace Royal paints you’ve already got at home.

Clark + Kensington was recently rated #1 among leading paint brands by Consumer Reports. So you know you’re going to get the best paint for your project here at Smith & Edwards!

Sample Paint Pints

Here’s something more you can do than just tack that color palette up on your wall. Just tell us what colors you’d like to test drive, and we’ll mix them up for you and set you up with sample pints of Valspar or Clark+Kensington paint for just $4.99.

Sample Paint Pints at Smith and Edwards

That way you can really get a feel for how the colors will affect the mood of the room, how they’ll enhance your furniture and cozy or freshen the feel of the space. You could get a sheet of chipboard and mock up what the room would look like – that way you get a much better idea than just 3″ paint chip swatches.

And while we’re probably the only ones who are excited about this, we’ve also got new displays and signage to match our new modern look! It’s like getting new sconces for us – aren’t they amazing?

New paint department signs at Smith & Edwards

(we think so!)

And since a lot of gluing seems to happen whenever there’s remodeling, we collected all our glues and plopped them right next to the paint so they’re easy to find. From E6000 to wood glues and of course Gorilla Glue, you’ll find the glue your projects need.

Every type of glue you need is at Smith & Edwards!

Come on in & visit!

And just wait… there is something exciting that Randy and the paint department can do with Valspar paints that they’ve never been able to do before! Come in and ask them about it, or wait to see the in-store demo we’ve got coming up in 2014. (Hint: it’s something to do with chalk!)

So come on in to Smith & Edwards and check out our huge range of paints and colors for home inspiration. The Paint department is just past the main entrance around aisles 19-23. Randy and Brenda can’t wait to help you find and match the perfect hues for your living room, dining room, bathroom, bedroom, or kitchen!

Smith and Edwards Paint Dept will get you the results you want!

Come on in and let’s pick out your colors!