Keep reading! I'll teach you how to paint shiny plastic outlet covers with chalkboard paint.
I wonder if I can save a few bucks and reuse what I have (very green BTW) and paint those cheap plastic outlet covers with chalkboard paint to match the wall?
White plaste builder outlet covers.
I took off the gloss with steel wool. Sandpaper works too. I used steel wool because it was only two steps to my right under the kitchen sink instead of six steps to my left in the garage. You know I am all about saving energy, fossil fuels as well as my own.
I grabbed a variety of items from the recycling bin to use as risers to make painting and priming the outlet covers easier. I primed the outlet covers using the same grey colored primer I used for the walls. Using a colored primer under a dark top coat reduces the number of extra coats of paint you will need to get nice even coverage.
Gray primer.
Once the primer was dry, I painted the outlet covers with two coats of chalkboard paint.
Black chalkboard paint outlet covers!
When everything was dry, I screwed them into the wall with the original screws and dabbed a bit a black paint on the black screws so they would match.
They blend nicely into the wall. I can draw on them too.
Ta Da! The matching chalkboard outlet covers was the final addition to my chalkboard backsplash that appears in the July/August 2010 issue of This Old House Magazine!
I'm in the July/August 2010 issue of This Old House Magazine.
I’m kinda of hooked on chalkboard paint. What shall I do next? I’m eyeing the refrigerator…
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10 comments :
Great idea and looks sooo much better than the boring covers that are standard.
Wow, you're famous! Way cool. I have a can of chalkboard paint that I'm itching to use. I love your backsplash idea! Clever to paint the covers, too.
Great job! I definitely have to get some chalkboard paint!! LOL
Great idea! They really add something!
Really love this idea. I'm in the middle of making a bunch of chalkboard paint projects for the upcoming Chalkboard Paint week of CraftShare (I am also getting addicted to the stuff), so come by in 2 weeks for some more ideas & to show off yours in the Flickr pool!! Thanks for linking this to Craftastic Monday:)
This is a really smart solution! Thanks for showing it off on Modern Craftswoman Monday! Rory
This is great! I fear I'm not quite as handy as you are... My bathroom has really old plastic tile in two different colors. There was a box of one color in the basement when I moved in, but none of the other color. But of course, the bathroom had several broken tiles of the color for which there were no replacements.
But never fear... I found some paint that matched the color of the tiles that needed replacing and just painted a few of the other colored ones and voila! No more broken plastic tile.
Now if I could just get it together to replace it all with something less icky... Although I suppose leaving it like it is would be the "greenest" option. I'll just keep telling myself that...
Yours in Frugal Green-ness,
Rebecca The Greeniac
www.GreeniacDigest.com
I was babysitting my nieces and flipping through the July/August issue and must have missed it! Darn it - I wanted to read the article!
The covers look great!
That is so cool! And congrats of the feature. Quite impressive!
It never dawned on me that you can paint a backsplash with chalkboard paint. May I ask how you did this?
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