a DIY project: repurposing an easel

I decided to get all crafty this week & transformed a boring easel into something more fun. I'm normally not a huge DIYer but I blame this on nesting. I love how it turned out so I thought I would share! 

First things first. If you're new around these parts, you need to know one thing: I despise chalk.  I always tell people I have chalk phobia. Is that a real thing? Who knows...but if it is, sign me up. I think this whole "turn everything into a chalkboard" trend is absurd.  A chalkboard wall in my house? Sounds like a nightmat are. 

ANYWAY, back to my DIY project. I have been a busy girl turning our boring computer room into a downstairs play area for G lately. I found that cheap kitchen at Goodwill & then we bought him a table and chairs set for him to color at. But? It was still missing something. 

This little guy has been sitting in our garage since I hung up my teacher hat last May. One side has a white board & this side was a pitiful chalk board. I say pitiful because when G would try to draw on it with chalk, it didn't really show up. I decided that this would be perfect in our computer room if I spiced it up a little bit! I tweeted earlier in the week asking if there was such a thing as magnetic paint...sure enough, there is! 

I bought the Rust-Oleum magnetic primer at Lowes. You use this first & then you can paint over it with any latex paint! Warning: it has the weirdest consistency & I had to stir it forever to get it to mix.

This was after the 1st coat. It said to paint 2-3 coats to make it stronger. 

This is what it looked like once it dried. There was one spot that got crackly after the 3rd coat. Not sure if the paint was too thick or maybe humidity/extremely ridiculous Tennessee heat played a part in that? I will blame everything on the heat these days. 

A few hours later I went hunting through our old paint stash in the garage. We used to have a ton of bright walls in our house so I knew there had to be something left. Luckily, we had half a can of this fun green that used to be our family room. {sidenote: I can't believe this color used to be on four huge walls. yikes} I did one good coat of this paint & that was it. I didn't want to cover the magnetic paint too much. I love how this looks though! Perfect for a kid! 

...and here is the finished product after baking in the hot sun! I made some of those magnets and will need to replace them with stronger magnets. That will be my next project. Let it also be known that ONE hour after this was inside, G decided to take a brown crayon and color all over it. for the love. I need to buy stock in magic erasers.