Do you suffer from home décor blindness?

I definitely do.

What is it?  Well, that’s what I’m calling it when you’ve had your existing décor around long enough that you’ve grown blind to it.  You just don’t see it anymore.  It doesn’t necessarily have to be bad or outdated, it’s just that you’ve had it for a while and you no longer notice it.  That means it’s time to start changing things up a bit.

Such was the case with the mirror frame chalkboard that I had in my living room.

I painted this up back in October 2017, and eventually got around to adding a chalked design to it and hanging it over our sofa in March 2019.

But lately I’ve become rather blind to it.  I think it’s time for a new look on that wall, one that will incorporate that fabulous gold framed mirror I found at the Goodwill recently.

So I took the chalkboard down and decided to give it a refresh.

First I removed the chalkboard from the frame.  I gave the frame a good cleaning, followed by a fresh coat of clear wax.

Then I lightly sanded the chalkboard with some 220 grit sandpaper, cleaned off the resulting dust and re-painted it.  Last time I used Homestead House milk paint in Bayberry, which turned out to be the perfect chalkboard green.  But I decided to go back to a black chalkboard this time around, and thus I painted it with Dixie Belle’s Midnight Sky.

Today’s q tip;  both milk paint and chalk paint left bare (no top coat) make great chalkboards!

I gave it two coats of watered down Midnight Sky, and I sanded lightly in between coats.  I find that this is the best way to keep your chalkboard surface nice and smooth.  I also sanded lightly after the final coat was dry.

Then I waited a couple of hours to give the paint a little time to cure and harden up, then I seasoned the chalkboard by rubbing chalk all over it and then wiping it away.

Seasoning your chalkboard eliminates that ‘new’ look and makes your chalkboard look legit.  It also makes it easier to wipe away anything you later write on the board without leaving marks behind.  I can vouch for that because the final result that you’ll see in a minute is actually ‘take two’ (or would it actually be ‘take three’?) for this chalkboard.  The first time around I didn’t like the placement of my wording.  So I wiped it all off with a damp rag, re-seasoned the chalkboard and started over.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I really don’t like my own handwriting.  So I like to cheat a little when writing on a chalkboard.

In this case I pulled out my two newest flower market themed stencils from Wallcutz.  Then I used a chalk pencil to lightly outline my chosen wording onto the chalkboard.

Then I went back over those fine lines with a sharpened piece of regular chalk.

The cursive writing from their Fresh Flower Market stencil was perfect for my chalkboard …

as were the flower names …

The “BLOOMS, SEEDS, STEMS” writing at the bottom is from the Flower Market – Open ‘Til Dusk stencil.

And just like that, the chalkboard has a fresh new look for spring.

I’m still debating whether to put it somewhere else in our house, or to take it into the shop.  Or perhaps one of my locals wants to snatch it up (in which case, be sure to check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details).

P.S. in case you are wondering, all of that white outside the window?  Yep, that’s still snow.  Those windows look out on Ken & Arlene’s north-ish facing front yard, and that’s one of the last areas to lose its snow cover in the spring.  Surely it will melt soon though, right?

Anyway, back to the chalkboard.

Even though I love how it turned out, I’m leaning towards selling it because that will force me to be on the hunt for some new things for our house that I’m not quite so blind to.

How about you?  Do you suffer from home décor blindness?  Leave a comment and let me know that I’m not alone.