Tutorial: Organize With Chalkboard Paint

This tutorial is sponsored by Lullaby Paints. The idea is my own (and I’m really excited to share it with you), so are all the pictures.

Suprise! I’m nesting. At nearly 34 weeks pregnant, I crave labels and bento-box-like organization for every corner of this over-stuffed house.

Leyna’s closet used to be the sweetest little space, full of lovely newborn baby girl things, all perfectly organized. Now it’s like baby-stuff purgatory. All the things she’s outgrown are hanging out in there, waiting to find out if it will be a keeper or a donation after we figure out the sex of this baby in 6ish weeks.

Unfortunately, we also still need her closet to function for her. I carved out a little spot on the floor to put this hutch, which once rested atop her old dresser (now in our room). We’ve been shoving stuff into it for month, with no real system. It recently started driving me crazy because of course it would. That’s where my priorities are now- random collections of disorganized mess.

I took it out to the garage and painted the back of it with some Lullaby Paints Chalkboard Paint (in Hydrangea), which is free of toxic VOCs, and honestly the easiest stuff to paint with, even when hugely pregnant.

The box came with everything I needed, making it a super fast project. That pouch (with lid!) that the paint comes in is pretty genius, and way less messy than paint in a can.

Now, you can do this with any bookshelf you have. If it doesn’t have a back, you could paint the wall it rests against.

Here’s the shelf (not in the scary closet) after painting AND priming it by rubbing a piece of chalk over all the chalkboard-painted spots, then wiping it off. The kids actually had a blast helping me with that.

Then I busted out my chalk markers, which I like using for this project because they don’t rub off as easily as regular chalk (but do come off with a damp cloth). Of course, you could use regular chalk, too. I labeled what should go where, and did some little (quite pitiful) doodles and drawings. YAY FOR TEMPORARY! Artist, I am not.

For now, we needed a space to store her swim bucket (where we also keep her clean swimsuit and goggles), a place for her “pretties” which are ponytail wrappers and such inside a Caboodle (Caboodle! I die!), a place for books that don’t fit in her other bookshelf, and a place for diapers (which we are SO CLOSE to ditching).

So, lots of things that need to be stored for now, but might not be around in a few months, or might find a new home. Then I’ll just wipe away the chalk and re-do it.

I also added a couple boxes below for dolls and stuffed animals. I made the signs using these wood plaques I picked up in the wood hobby section of Michaels. Again, painted with Lullaby Paints Chalkboard Paint, and labeled with chalk markers (yup, even the black is chalk). I had Scott drill a couple holes in them for me, and threaded ribbon through.

All that was left to do was put everything back in it’s place.

I get that much of the labeling is for me (or Scott) at this point since Leyna can’t really read. I contemplated drawing pictures of the things that needed to go in those spots, but… that wasn’t going to end well.

But, so many of you are so much more artistic than me. You could also work on a number system with an older child, having them match bins with numbers on them to the numbers chalked onto the back of the shelf. Lots of ways you can work with this system, and if it doesn’t work out, you simply erase and try something else because CHALK.

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