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DIY Beautifully Chalky Limewashed Walls

before + after diy how-to materials for making renovation

When friends renovated their NYC brownstone, they made wonderfully varied walls — high-gloss painted walls next to beautiful flat, chalky ones achieved by careful plastering — that made the rooms incredibly beautiful.

I copied their high-gloss walls in my Harlem space, but wondered how I could achieve the chalky effect of plaster myself. The answer recently presented itself in a great DIY by Justine Hand for Remodelista.

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Chalkboard Painted Classic Armoire with Poem

inspiration

Although we’ve been a big fan of chalkboard paint in the past, we were feeling it a bit overdone until we saw this chalkboard-painted armoire. What a clever way to cool out a big piece of furniture: cover it with a poem, quote or any other bit of writing: the perfect balance! via Vosges Paris…

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soleri’s cool chalky walls from “artists’ handmade houses” (+ our giveaway winner!!!)

books + zines cool spaces creative process ideas from artists material mindset paths + processes space/home tools/wares

In honor of the conclusion of our Artists’ Handmade Houses giveaway contest, here’s one final photo from the book: some lovely chalky walls at Paolo Soleri’s Cosanti . Six small sleeping areas, located along the east side of Cat Cast (so named because the earth pile on which the concrete was cast was mounded with a Caterpillar…

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freeform chalkboards

diy materials for making space/home walls + windows

We love this imperfect round of chalkboard painted on a wall. It made us think “Oh yeah….why not paint chalkboard paint in odd or organic freeform shapes on the wall, instead of the usual rectangle? Or perhaps a long thing strip/stripe across a whole wall…. You can buy chalkboard paint here. via Style Files Related…

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good idea: chalkboard panel as disguise

blogs + sites diy material materials for making space/home walls + windows

We found this good idea in Covet Garden, an appealing online shelter magazine that features spaces of real people (slightly ripping off The Selby‘s questionnaire). Here, Photographer Tracy Shumate’s converted factory space…”Necessity being the mother of invention, Tracy uses large MDF panel covered in chalkboard paint to hide her unsightly electrical panels.” Here’s another iteration…

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grown-up chalkboard “art”

diy ideas from artists materials for making mindset space/home walls + windows

Sometimes when I need a diversion from writing, I poke around location scout Andrea Raisfeld’s website of interesting spaces for rent for photography locations. You can browse by type (apartment, barn, log cabin…), or description (contemporary, Modernist, Swedish…), or even by a feature (bunk bed, river, treehouse), and so on. I always find unexpected ideas there, like…

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chalkboard volkswagon

tools/wares wheels

Chalkboard paint is one of the best inventions to come down the line in some time, due in large part to it’s improvisation-inspiring nature. There seems to be no end in sight to the uses people are devising for it. A current favorite: this ’70’s Volkswagon painted with chalkboard paint that I stumbled on on Flickr.

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