Homemade Chalkboard paint

The beauty of Habitat ReStores is that you never know what you'll find. It's like treasure hunting, looking for fabulous finds among the donations from generous people who believe in a cause. The beauty of Pinterest is that you never know what you'll learn. Put these two amazing ideas together and you've got a lifetime of grand ideas!

Our most recent idea at the ReStore was to experiment with homemade chalk board paint, a process which is actually very simple. All you need is 2 tablespoons of unsanded grout to every 1 cup of your favorite color latex or acrylic paint.

Here's what I used: 

Keracolor-U unsanded grout in white. I didn't need a lot of it so this was a great solution. If you're doing an a couple of rooms in chalkboard paint or plan to use it for a lot of projects, it might be more beneficial for you to get a small bag of unsanded grout. 

For paint I chose to use Folk Art Acrylic Color in Hunter Green and Yellow because I had them laying around. I squirted a good amount into a bowl and then mixed: 

Once I got a color I was happy with I started applying the paint directly onto a clean, clear glass vase (picked up at the ReStore). I used a foam brush because it was all I had available, but I would recommend using a normal paint brush. 

My finished product looked like this: 

Now all I need are some flowers and someone to leave me a message! 

Note: One thing I would recommend is to measure out the amount of grout you are using. I ended up using too much and the paint became too thick and sticky, which made vase a little rough once the paint dried.