Before You Draw On Your Chalkboard Wall, Season It! Here's How & Why
Making a chalkboard wall is easy. You clean the wall, slap a few layers of chalkboard paint on it, let it dry, and you’re ready to go, right? WRONG! There is a final step that is vital to the long-term care of your wall. This same tip goes for chalkboards too. Before you start drawing on them, do yourself a huge favor and season them.
Good chalkboard art requires chalk dust so it’s important to introduce that dust in a gentle way. If you don’t season your board and start drawing, you’ll discover upon trying to erase that first design that it will leave behind a sort of stain, or “ghost image”. If you take a few minutes and a few pieces of chalk to just season your wall, you’ll be putting a protective layer of dust down to avoid any possible ghost images.
It’s super simple but does make a little bit of a mess so be ready to vacuum or sweep when you’re done. Additionally, whenever your wall needs a refresh, wipe it down with an old towel with a squirt bottle filled with water, like you’re cleaning a window (or whatever…you understand how cleaning works). After your board is clean and dry, re-season it.
This is my wall in three different states:
That dark spot on the right has been freshly cleaned and needs to be seasoned.
The medium-dark spot has been erased with a cotton pad (like those ones you use to remove your makeup).
The white spot on the right (and top and bottom) is where the board has a nice heavy seasoning.
To season your wall, lay a piece of chalk on its side and rub it all over the damn place.
Make sure your wall is totally covered in chalk, you’ll go through several pieces of chalk to cover the whole wall.
Do you see how there are a bunch of black spots where I seasoned the wall? The more textured your wall is, the more spots you’ll see. The smoother the wall, the fewer spots.
Textured or smooth, it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Now erase!
It’ll look spotty and messy the first pass with your eraser but just keep at it and the chalk will smooth evenly over the wall.
Yes, you can still see the spot that I had cleaned off. Give it another season and just carry on erasing.
Now I’ve got a beautifully seasoned board.
Seasoning your board is fast, it’s easy, and it’s completely worth it. I know a lot of people like the look of a clean chalkboard wall but I’m telling you, your designs will have SO MUCH MORE dimension if you give it a good seasoning. As I lay a design down on this wall, I can add and remove chalk dust to add depth, shadows, layers, etc. which will really make it stand out and look like you know what you’re doing.
If you’re following along on this little chalkboard art wall series, either with a wall or with a chalkboard, post your wall or board on social media and tag me so I can see what you’re up to (@em.n.arts)!
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