Here's a salvaged "less then desirable object" turned awesome project. I started off with a not so nice girly chalkboard, and with an easy paint job and some tape, made it a fun and trendy chalkboard. Go out and dumpster dive or yard sale and see what you can find. Don't be put off by first impressions. You can really salvage anything with some paint and tape.
What I used:
Acrylic Paint (a few colors)
Low Stick Tape (masking tape, artist tape, washi tape)
Silver Paint pen
Black Sharpie Marker
Paintbrush
Some scrap paper (to keep the paint off my carpet)
First Bit: BASE COLOR
We're going to be painting, so put down some scrap paper so you don't mess up your carpet. Also, it's going to have to sit for several hours at a time to dry in between layers, so set up somewhere that will be left undisturbed. (Keep your cat from walking on wet paint.)
(2) Cover up the old and ugly.
If the surface you're working on isn't what you like, you'll have to cover it up. Apply your base color. I had to do white first, to cover up the doodle art on my chalkboard. After that completely dried (maybe 3 hours or so) I did a gradient green to lime paint base.
EASY PERFECTION TIP:
I didn't want to get the black writing part of my chalkboard painted on (and I don't trust myself to be 100% accurate), so I just taped it off. Make sure you cover with tape anything you don't want to accidentally get paint on.
Level Two: MASKING TAPE
(4) Masking off with Tape.
Make sure your base paint job is COMPLETELY 100% DRY before you apply any tape.
The point of the tape is to mask off areas that you don't want to be effected by your 2nd layer of paint. I decided I wanted my 2nd layer to be silver, and the original green to show through once I removed the tape.
Apply your tape in any design (striped, checkered, zigzags, etc) over the base paint layer.
You don't want your tape to be too sticky. (It will rip the paint off your project when you remove it.) If you think your tape is too sticky, stick it to your jeans, or some other fabric, then apply it where you want it. It will have picked up some of the fuzzys and be about half as sticky.
(5) Paint Layer Two.
Now just paint right over everything. The tape will block off your new layer. Let this new layer dry for a few hours. I let it dry overnight at this point.
(6) Remove the tape.
After the paint is TOTALLY WITHOUT A DOUBT dry, peel the tape off. (Be careful and slow doing this. You don't want to take off your base paint with the tape.) You'll now have a cool design!
Final Round: THE LITTLE DETAILS
Using a paint pen, draw on some details! Paint pens are amazing. They go on top of anything, and let you do details easily that would be a pain in the ass to do with a brush.
My second layer of paint was silver, and I drew on top of it with a silver paint pen.... Whaaaat?
Explanation: The acrylic paint isn't nearly as rich and saturated as the pen, so I drew on top of it and got a wonderful subtle contrast. You can try experimenting with different paint/paint-pen combinations.
The paint pen doesn't need much time to dry. I added the last few details with a regular black sharpie. Now you're done! Go make some Pie in a Jar to celebrate!
