DIY Chalkboard with a Vinyl Sign

A few posts prior to this I moved a group of picture frames from one wall to another spot in the house which left a big empty space just asking for something to fill it up. Since this big empty space is the wall that leads down into the basement family room I needed to ensure it was kid friendly (unlike the fragile, glass picture frames that were previously on the wall). So how do I fill up the empty space?? I had my husband build a 4 x 6 foot chalkboard on the wall.

We went to Home Depot and bought a sheet of 4 x 8 plywood and they cut it down to 4 x 6 for us. We used the remaining 2 x 4 piece for another room of the house. We bought some chalkboard paint and after several coats of paint and several days for everything to dry, my husband used his mighty air compressor and nail gun to attach the board to the wall. Then he took some floor trim, painted it white and framed the chalkboard.

When my husband finished his project, I went to work to make a vinyl sign for above the chalkboard. I finally settled on the saying, "Good times are never ending when we are playing and pretending" as it fit my boys perfectly.

This is what the wall looked like prior to moving the picture frames:

And this is our new wall complete with a DIY chalkboard:

I found the 2 red mailboxes in the $1 section at Target and they work perfectly to hold the chalk and eraser.

I love how the new chalkboard turned out and now I have my 5 year old Kindergartener giving me "school lessons" each day on his new chalkboard! :) And you might ask what did we do with that extra 2 x 4 foot piece of plywood? Well, we made a "menu board" for my son's Cooking Birthday Party.

Now that the party is over, we plan on framing it with white trim like the big chalkboard and keeping it in the kitchen for the boys to use while I'm cooking!