Create A Kid-Friendly Activity Wall With Chalkboard Paint

Here’s a fun wall mural project that will keep your kids entertained and artistically nourished for years to come. All you need is a single can of chalkboard paint and a willingness to drastically change the aesthetics in one of your rooms. (Plus a crap-tonne of chalk, obviously.)

I saw this ingenious babysitting hack at a friend’s house on the weekend and was impressed enough to share. As its name implies, chalkboard paint is a hard wearing, solvent-based paint that has the consistency of a chalkboard. It dries in around 20 minutes, is safe to spray and provides excellent bang-for-buck in terms of coverage.

My friend managed to double-coat the pictured wall (measuring 2400mmx3200mm) with a single 500ml can of black chalkboard paint. The entire project set her back around $20.

As we’ve seen in the past, you can also mix your own chalkboard paint in a range of colours if you’d prefer to go fully DIY. For a less drastic solution, the same concept can also be applied to a kid’s desk or table. Or you could try adding magnetic primer to the mix for even more fun.

If you want your kids to unleash more of their creative side, a chalkboard mural is pretty hard to beat: we set our kids loose with some chalk and didn’t see hide nor hair of ’em for hours. The only downside is that they’ll need to erase their masterpieces whenever they run out of space. Be sure to keep your camera handy!

See also: Mix Your Own Chalkboard Paint In Any Colour | Combine Magnetic Primer And Chalkboard Paint For The Ultimate Workspace Wall | The Android-Themed, Chalkboard Workspace At Google HQ