I turned a coffee table into a chalkboard canvas for my toddler
How-To & DIY Photos by Jill Of Most Trades.
I love to encourage my little girl to draw and be creative as much as possible. I've looked into a lot of options for her (man, those "mess-free" paper and marker combinations that only work with one another would get expensive!), but wasn't very happy with what was available — besides, my daughter needs a BIG canvas. When my husband brought a pretty grody-looking coffee table home a few weeks ago, I ignored it until I realized what I could use it for — the coffee table could be transformed into a canvas for our kid.
My daughter and I spent a day hanging out at the house, and I noticed how much she loves to decorate our driveway with her sidewalk chalk. Then it hit me — a chalkboard table!
What I love most about this table is that my daughter can grow with it — I know she's a toddler now, but when she's in school this table would be perfect for notes, homework, reminders, and so on. Not to mention it will work with almost any decor, depending on how it's painted.
Another bonus? Assuming you don't have allergies, chalk is SUPER easy to clean up. Even if you don't have kids this table would be great for college and high school students — not to mention for adults! A coffee table you can write on when you really need to remember something but can't find a pen or paper? Awesome.
Adrienne said
Cool! Soooo…how do you actually turn it into a chalkboard? Do you buy the board part and glue it onto the table?
M said
I think she must of painted the top with chalkboard paint.
M said
Like this iheartorganizing.blogsp…table.html
Kisså said
Rustoleum makes a good chalkboard paint. You can even get it in a variety of colors. I love chalkboard-ANYTHING!
Bridget said
Another one wanting to know how you did it! It is an awesome idea and I'd love to do it myself. I'm just not that crafty and would need pretty simple instructions!
Sarabeth said
I now have a home and use for the old IKEA coffee table that has been sitting in our garage for two years! Thank you!
Kara said
I can vouch for the chalkboard coffee table being great for college students and adults. My roommate and I in college bought a big round coffee table from Goodwill for $10 and then got the chalkboard spray paint that you can find at pretty much any hardware store, gave it two nice coats of paint and there you go! It provided hours of entertainment for everyone.
Madison Young said
I'm definitely going to use this idea in our new home. We did something similar by baby proofing our brick fire place by building a slanted drawing easel/drawing board to prevent our daughter from crawling onto the brick and give her more space for creating art.
Liset said
My daughter just paints and scribbles and puts stickers all over my coffee table. I think it would all come off, I'm just too lazy to do anything more than wipe it down with a wipie! Haha! I'd like to do the chalkboard thing, but I think she would just use other things on it and ruin it. : /
Sarah said
Right before I read this I was staring at my own little IKEA coffee table and thinking that I wanted another one but just didn't want to throw that one away…
IT'S LIKE YOU CAN READ MY MIND!
Adrienne said
okay, amazing…I had no idea it was just a matter of buying chalkboard spray paint…awesome!
SarahViajera said
Perfect! We need a coffee table & she needs more/bigger art space! Totally going to do that – kudos to you for thinking it up. I assumed you painted it but yeh if you could clarify paint type/most effective method that would be brill
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