Thursday 29 May 2008

DIY - lesson 1 of 1

Lesson 1: choose your materials carefully.

I am not a natural DIY expert. Here's my latest project: a blackboard for Ainsworth to use in the garden.



I think it went pretty well. Three panels of wood sanded and coated with three coats each of fancy and expensive blackboard paint (magnetic, no less!) carefully attached to two batons and attached to the outside wall. It was fairly level. With no drips. And he loved it.

And then the rain came.

Wood warps when it gets damp. Well, cheap wood does anyway. Badly. And falls off the wall as a result.

Back to the drawing board...

4 comments:

Milo said...

Wow, that is such a cool blackboard! A is really lucky to have such a crafty daddy, even if the project didn't work out exactly... My daddy is *really* un-crafty, but maybe I can talk him into something like this...

Stephen said...

What a great idea! Do it again with exterior plywood. Treat it with wood preserver first, something that does exactly what it says on the tin.

Anonymous said...

I love that chalkboard paint stuff. We painted the door that leads from the kitchen area out to our garage with that paint and the kids can draw all over it to their hearts' content.

Is the paint itself actually rated for outdoor use? If not, even if you use better outdoor wood, you still might have problems.

Trevor Coultart said...

Well, the new version is now in place. Exterior Plywood should do the job (thanks, Stephen!) and I'm trusting the paint simply because it doesn't say it's not suitable for external use.