Walmart’s Projects Made Simple: Make Anything Magnetic and Make Anything a Chalkboard

It’s time for another “Project Made Simple” by Walmart!

If you remember from last time when I tried replacing a faucet–Walmart has a great new section on their website called “Projects Made Simple” with step by step videos breaking down a variety of different home improvement projects and making them simple and easy to do.

This time they asked us to do a project to update our kids rooms–and sent us a cool variety of Rustoleum products to use! We got a big box with Chalkboard Paint, Magnetic Paint and Dry Erase Paint.

I decided to do a project in Buddy’s room–since I’ve already done a couple of makeovers for Princess.

The process was pretty simple. First I went to the Projects Made Simple website and watched the videos for How to Make Anything a Chalkboard and How to Make Anything Magnetic.

Once I had watched the videos I headed off to Walmart to pick up a few supplies. Luckily I already had a nice thick canvas dropcloth from when I painted Princess’s dressers last summer, but I grabbed some painters tape, a small foam roller kit and some paint stir sticks.

At home I placed my dropcloth to catch any drips and masked off the area I was going to paint. Next I sanded the surface lightly to make sure the paint would adhere well. A quick wipe with a barely damp cloth and I was ready to paint.

The magnetic paint really has to be stirred well-and stirred while you are actually using it. Basically you are trying to keep whatever it is that makes it magnetic suspended in the paint. I did 3 coats and it still will only hold up a very light magnet with a fairly large surface area. I think that it is one of those products where the more light coats you do the better result you have.

After the magnetic paint dried thoroughly I did two coats of the chalkboard paint and let it dry.

Finally I “conditioned” the chalkboard by rubbing it down with the side of a piece of chalk and wiping it off. Tada! All done-a Magnetic Chalkboard!

Here’s a video showing the process of how I made a section of Buddy’s loft bed into a magnetic chalkboard!

I’ve got plenty of chalkboard paint left-I think I’ll use some of it to paint the inside of a few kitchen cupboards and make myself a place to write my shopping lists and other notes!