Sunday, June 20, 2010

Chalkboard Paint Outlet Covers

After I painted my kitchen backsplash with black chalkboard paint I looked at my white plastic outlet covers – they just would not do. The white plastic was just too high contrast with the black chalkboard wall.


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:

Diane said...

Great idea and looks sooo much better than the boring covers that are standard.

EnviRambo said...

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.

Jill said...

Great job! I definitely have to get some chalkboard paint!! LOL

Amanda @ Healthy House on the Block said...

Great idea! They really add something!

Sew Can Do said...

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:)

Rory from Tools Are For Women Too! said...

This is a really smart solution! Thanks for showing it off on Modern Craftswoman Monday! Rory

Anonymous said...

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

Kristin - The Goat said...

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!

Kathleen W. said...

That is so cool! And congrats of the feature. Quite impressive!

Simply Simone said...

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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