With Chalkboards, Bigger Is Almost Always Better

When it comes to having a blackboard in your life, it’s best to go big or go home.

MONEY WELL SPENT | One of the best things we did the first time we renovated our house, when my now teenage son was small, was to put a gigantic black chalkboard on one wall in our dining area. We had to order it from a company in Ontario that supplies visual presentation products to schools because we couldn’t find anything locally that was the four-by-eight-foot size we wanted. The board was surprisingly inexpensive, but crating and shipping it nearly doubled the cost. And the cost doubled again when we ditched the anodized aluminum trim kit that can be purchased with the unit in favour of a custom-fitted natural wood picture frame we thought would look better with our hardwood floors and furniture. In the end, I think we paid around $800 for the whole thing, which isn’t dirt cheap but certainly less expensive than a framed artwork of comparable size.

I haven’t regretted this expenditure for a minute. This chalkboard is command central at our house, the place where we make lists, scribble notes to one another, conjugate French verbs, solve math problems, practise spelling tests, diagram soccer plays and visually explain car accidents. It’s also the place where we unleash our inner artist by making personalized blackboard birthday cards, seasonal art and customized greetings for visiting family and friends.

With Chalkboards, Size Does Matter

When it comes to chalkboards, size does matter. Unless you are looking for a tiny spot to jot a name or number when you talking on the phone, a bigger board is always better.

A good friend of mine recently covered an entire wall in her modernist kitchen with blackboard paint, which is way less expensive than buying a stand-alone chalkboard, and maybe more effective visually depending on the look of your interior. She and her husband live in a post and beam house where walls are at a premium so they have cleverly hung a large piece of art in the middle of this sea of off-black; the effect is very attractive. “I love the organic, temporal, studio feel a chalkboard brings to a space,” she says. “This wall lifts a corner of my kitchen out of the everyday and makes it feel like a place where people can jump up in a moment and start talking about ideas.”

Speaking of ideas, there is a something pretty new chalkboards: It’s colour. Typically, stand-alone chalkboards come in black or green, but chalkboard paint comes in a surprising number of fun, bright colours: Rust-Oleum comes in 12 different colour ways, Hudson Paint has 24. —C. Rule

For more on stand-alone chalkboards, visit Architectural School Products, aspproducts.ca.  Rust-Oleum chalkboard paint is available at The Home Depot; to see their colours visit www.rustoleum.com. To see Hudson Paint colours visit, www.hudsonpaint.com. If you live in Canada and want to order Hudson Paint, you can do it through their store, Tivoli Mercantile, in Red Hook, New York.

Photo: C. Phaisalakani