Recent Projects: Chalkboard Towel Rack

While the blog may have been rather quiet this summer, I think I can speak for all of the Church Ladies in saying that we kept quite busy in our domestic churches. Knowing that I'd be more inclined to cozy up to my computer as the weather cooled, however, I made sure to snap some photos as I went, the better to share a few of my projects with you.

First off is this repurposing of a picture frame I'd received as a gift.

The frame holds a 4x6" print, to help you picture the scale.

It didn't particularly match my decor, and the verse unfortuantely tended to put a certain Marty Haugen earworm on my brain, so I knew some refinishing was in order. I liked the format with the text on the frame, though, so I decided to go with chalkboard paint, and turn it into a much-needed towel rack for our guest bath (currently, that bath sports a single bar, awkwardly placed right over the toilet).

After a misadventure wherein I managed to break the (glued-in) glass while trying to remove it*, I took my hand sander, loaded with some fine-grit sandpaper, and thoroughly roughed up the entire surface, including the outside and inside edges.

In retrospect, I could have sanded a bit more; after painting, you can still just barely see the outline of the design if the light is right.

After two coats of chalkboard paint, I added a pair of hooks, drilling the pilot holes rather carefully, since the frame wasn't solid wood. If anyone has any insights into getting these type of hooks straight, I'd be curious. One of mine is just a tad off, but there isn't a single flat surface by which to true these.

I can't see these hooks without thinking of this.

A little chalk art, and our new towel holder was ready to hang. In the future, it might hold welcome notes for our guests, or notes to mark whose towel is whose, but for now it seemed appropriate to replace the old hymn with a thematically-appropriate favorite.

*The opening turned out to be just a tad smaller than 4x6, so I couldn't just use glass from another frame. Since I was just going to use a 15¢ print of a vacation photo, I cut apart the clear plastic top from a greeting card box to replace it.