chalkboard decor tutorial.

Of all our wedding décor, the chalkboards were truly a hit. We've had many people ask where we got them and when I say, "they are handmade," I get asked how we made them. I figured it would be best to just right a post with all the details.

I originally saw the chalkboard idea on a wedding blog. Have you heard of Wedding Chicks? If you haven't and you are planning a wedding I highly recommend looking at their site. It is filled with wedding yumminess and ideas galore. They also feature wedding, budgets, vendors, etc. Our wedding is actually going to be featured which is more than a dream come true!

Once I had an idea of what I wanted, my mom and I decided it would be most cost effective to make the actual boards ourselves, and then find someone else to do the typography.

We went to our local craft store and found stickers in the shapes of the boards we wanted. The stickers (just plain ol' scrapbook stickers) were ranged in size from about 2" to 4". Needless to say, size didn't matter, just look for shapes you like.

Next we took a projector and blew up the shapes of the stickers on white butcher paper. This allowed us to create any size of shape we wanted. This becomes the template for the wood cutouts.

Cut the paper out in the shapes you traced.

We were fortunate enough to have a family friend who cut all the wood boards from the templates we made. He rounded all the edges and used an electric sander to make each board silky smooth. He also built our 8'x8' wall.

When we received the boards back we painted them with chalkboard paint and a sponge roller. We used Rustoleum Brand paint, and it seemed to work pretty well. Most boards took two coats of paint, some needed three layers in a couple spots.

Now for the fun part...

I wanted large scale chalking done on the 8'x8' wall and I new I needed help. This was not a task I wanted to conquer on my own. We have a local coffee shop here in Vancouver, called Thatchers, that has a large chalkboard wall with HUGE lettering. I knew whoever did that wall would be perfectly capable of doing our boards. I went in and asked for their reference. The gal who did theirs was unable to do ours, but she recommended us to Jordyn Sorrell and her husband, who just happen to be totally amazing at lettering.

I told Jordyn my ideas and let her "chalk" up a few of her own. She did an AMAZING job and I'm happy to reference her to anyone. The boards were exactly what I wanted and truly pulled much of the wedding together. They also made our wedding unique from most others I had been to previously.

I'm so glad they were such a hit and happy to share any more specifics with anyone.

Now to find another reason to make more...