Refinishing an Antique Chalk Board

Years ago, when we first moved here, my friend Sara lived with us for about a year while she went to school. She actually moved with us and when coming back after a visit back east, she purchased this little school desk back there and gave it to us. I thought it was a great desk and love it.  She is actually the friend that suggested I blog. If you like my blog, all credit goes to her.
 
We actually ended up decorating the girls room around it when they were little making the room a "School House" room. Click here to see that. 

I found this great item at a second hand store recently. My sister actually showed up at the store while I was there and I found her asking a worker if the item was sold. I laughed as I knew she would like it but since it went with the room, I decided to keep it for myself. 


I did think about just fixing it up and selling it for more as I think it was $5 or $6 but wanted to get the girls opinion first. 

I have so many things going on that need doing but with the snow outside, I couldn't clean out the gutters as last time I did it and it was snowy, I got rashes on the hand that scooped the stuff out of the rain gutters so I won't do that until it dries up a bit more. 

I didn't want to wash windows with snow on the ground and I have two rooms I am working on at the moment but they are not "quick" jobs and I needed something that I could actually finish. So, with that, I pulled out this little gem and figured since Princess Five was headed to a play with her friend, I would get a project off my "to do" list.
 
This cute little antique chalk board and easel is so cute. It is missing the little clip at the top that held papers for them to paint or draw but I would have taken it off anyway as I don't want any kids having paint or markers anywhere in my house so I thought I could make that side a cork board but I don't want pins or tacks at kids height either. 

I thought I could make it a magnet board but don't want those where kids could swallow them so that left me with a white board. 

Handily, I just happened to have a white board I purchase as I was going to replace the top of a camp table with the white board but in the end, I couldn't get the top off as it was "crimped" onto the board that was in it and I gave up and took the table to the recycle place but I had already purchased the white board piece for $2 at a second hand store. 

That worked out great as I have it now for the easel and I used rubbing alcohol to clean off the white board. Rubbing alcohol works great on those as we learned for Princess One's wedding. Here is a post about that.

I need to go to my neighbors tomorrow and use his saw to cut the white board to fit into that spot but I am excited as it came out so cute. 

I first used wet paper towels to wash the chalk portion of the board. I did this about three times and used a dry one to dry it off and I ended up with black all over on the towels. This in turn made all the little chips in the board show up. There were several really deep puncture type places on the board where the back was showing through and there were probably 200 little whiter areas where the paint had come off. 


By now, you should know that I use Sharpie markers for just about everything. I have at least one of every color and sized tip and double ended tips etc. So, with that knowledge, you can guess that I used a Sharpie to fill in the little scrapes, punctures and scratches on the board. I ended up using three different Sharpies. I used the gray for the longer scratches but in the end, I used the black regular Sharpie for the bigger dings because the gray kept seeping in and then looked like I hadn't done anything. 


I used the Sharpie Pen which has a very fine tip for the little dots all over the board that needed covering. I was listening to an audio book so I didn't find it too boring to just touch up all the little dots. Click here for my post on audio books being addictive. 

Once I had filled in all the little white spots showing through and filled in the dings with the larger black Sharpie, I used a "magic eraser" sponge and got some crayon off the board that I couldn't just wash off. Those eraser sponges will take Sharpie off of walls, toys and just about anything. They are amazing.


You can see the crayon on the board and I show in the picture that using the magic eraser sponge, I got the crayon off but it did take some of the paint off with it as you can see. Be very light on the touch if you are taking crayon off and be aware of the way you are scrubbing as you don't want to have a big scratch. I did a little bit straight on the crayon and then I did little circles so that it "buffed" the line out so it didn't look like a big scratch mark in the shape of where the crayon had been.


It was a bit weird that where I used the Magic Eraser sponge, the board was darker. I wouldn't have thought that but perhaps it "buffed" it like I said when I did the little circular scrubbing. 

That led me to remember how they used to "oil" their slates. I am not sure where I ever heard that in my life but I swear that I have heard that they would oil them to clean them. 

So, after I had all the crayon scrubbed off, the dots all filled in, I took a paper towel and put some coconut oil on it, (just a small amount) and started rubbing it onto the chalk board. If started to shine right up. 


I covered the entire board and then buffed it several times with different cloths and texture clothes getting finer and finer as I went taking off any excess.


I was really happy with how well the oil made the chalk board look. I am not sure how well this would work on a modern day chalk board as I don't know that the process is the same to make them now as it was then but it really added some color and depth to the board I have. 


I just purchased some stain for a another project I have that I need to get done and had it on the top of the fridge waiting to get to that other project. I am not sure what color stain was on this originally but with the little pamphlet I had with the stain, it looked like walnut or the color I had just purchased which is "Early American." 

The little desk I have is more of a red stain like maple or something but since I had the "Early American" stain already and it looked like it would match and I wouldn't have to sand the entire thing to use it, I went ahead and just stained over what was on the easel.

I enjoyed working on the project while listening to a book about early settlers breaking new ground and making roads in the late 1800's. It kinda felt like I should be listening to something from that time frame while working on this piece.

I stained it and it took me probably three hours in all to get everything done but I wasn't working fast or smart. I was enjoying my project. I realized that I really needed to be able to "get something off my list" and "finish" something as I work on all these other things that I can't "finish" so quickly. 

I have bins of scanning I need to get done for my aunt and my mom. I have all the outside stuff I can't do with the cold. I have the garage that I can't clean out until some of the girls get an apartment where they can take their "stuff" and the sewing room I am working on isn't a "finish in a few hours" type of project as I am going through everything.

I really enjoyed this project and the fact that it is almost finished in a few hours was WONDERFUL.

I do need to get the white board cut and I am just going to tack it onto the other board already there at the corners. 

I should be able to get that done in no time. I am going to put it down in that "School house" room since I asked Princess Five if I should keep it or sell it. 

She replied, "It looks like it would be fun." meaning, she would have liked it when younger in that room as they played "School" all the time down there. So when I asked her if I should keep it outright, she said, "Yes." The Princess has spoken.....