Hey guys!  We are rounding the curve to finish our 12 Days of Christmas series!  Welcome to Day 11!  To keep up with all of our projects, make sure to follow us on Instagram!

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I LOVE how my latest project turned out!  Every year our big fam does a big gift exchange with the adults.  We play a game and steal gifts… It’s so much fun.  I really wanted to make my gift this year.  So, I came up with this DIY Chalkboard Easel!

Chalkboard Easel Tutorial

Christmas Tree

Isn’t it so cute?  I really love that you can change it up and use it in any room in the house… So fun!

This really is an easy build!  And the best part…  Cost.  You can easily build these babies for under $12 in material which makes me love them even more.

Here we go!

Supply List

2 – 8 ft 2 x 3 boards

1 2×4′ chalkboard panel (found mine at Home Depot for under $10)  This panel will make 3 chalkboards

1 hinge

twine

My first step was making my cuts.  I cut my 2×3 into 5 different pieces like below…

Cuts for DIY Chalkboard

For the chalkboard, I found this great chalkboard MDF sheet they carry at Home Depot.  It’s under $10 for a 2′ x 4′ sheet.  This will make 3 chalkboards.

Home Depot Chalkboard

I cut my chalkboard to these measurements.  You can also have Home Depot cut it for you if you don’t want to mess with this part yourself.

Chalkboard Measurements

Now to put her together!  I used one of my very favorite tools ever to get mine assembled.  You might be sick of hearing me talk about it, but guess what?  Here I go again. 😉  I LOVE it!  I can’t stress to you enough how much my Kreg Jig
has changed my building.  It makes it easier, and makes my pieces turn out so much more professional looking.

Buy one.  Now.  Thank me later.

This is my new Kreg Jig K5  that I love and adore.  Look at all the storage on the sides for your bits, and the clamp is self adjusting, which is a huge timesaver!

K5 Kreg Jig

I used 1.5″ pocket holes for this part.  You can see on the side of the jig where I have it set to 1.5″…

Kreg Jig Chalkboard

And here is how I lined my 2×3 up in the jig to make my pocket holes.  I did 2 holes on each end of my 16″ pieces.

Kreg Jig

Here is what my 16″ pieces looked like after making my pocket holes…

Keg Jig Pocket Holes

Next, I used my Ryobi 18V drill to attach those small boards to my longer ones.

Pocket Holes

I lined up my shorter board 3″ from the base of the legs like this…

Chalkboard DIY tutorial

This is what it looked like at this point!

How to assemble chalkboard

At this point, I decided to stain this piece and the other 30″ board.  I knew it would be much easier to get it all covered if I did it now before attaching it all.

I used one of my favorite colors for this chalkboard!

Rust-Oleum-Dark-Walnut

Rust-Oleum Ultimate Wood Stain in Dark Walnut

Love this stuff! It only takes 1 coat and dries in under an hour.

Once it was all dry, I finished it up.  I started by attaching my chalkboard piece to my frame.

I can’t wait to show you guys this part…

I got to use a new, totally awesome tool on this part!

Ryobi has a new cordless staple gun people!  It is called the AirStrike Stapler, and looks very similar to their nailer that I never shut up about.

Ryobi 18v Stapler

I lined my chalkboard up on the back of the frame and used the stapler to add a staple about every 3″ or so.

Ryobi AirStrike Stapler

Chalkboard diy

I attached the hinge next.  I actually found this hinge in brass, but painted it with black spray paint before adding it.  I used my drill to attach it to the chalkboard first.

black hinge 2

Then, I attached it to my other 30″ board.

black hinge

I used a 1/4″ drill bit to put a hole in the bottom of the back board I just attached.  I made the hole about 4″ from the base of the board.

chalkboard 4

Now for the twine!  I cut a piece of twine and tied a knot through the hole I just made.

chalkboard back 3

Then, I tied another knot on the opposite end of the twine like this…

chalkboard back 2

Finally, I used my stapler to attach that knot to the back of the chalkboard like this…

Chalkboard Back

After getting the whole thing assembled, I used my Ryobi Corner Cat Sander to distress my edges and give it a fun, vintage look!  You just run it over all your corners and edges.

Weathered wood

All done!  I added some words and took some pics for you!

Chalkboard Easel

Shanty2Chic Christmas Tree

DIY Chalkboard Easel

Christmas Tree

Chalkboard Easel Tutorial

I hope you love it as much as I do…. And I hope whoever picks it does too! 😉

I would love for you to share and pin this with your peeps below!

Thanks so much for stopping by!!

Be sure to check out the other great Day 11 posts from our friends below…

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Also be sure to check out some of our other fun Christmas projects!

Free-Printable-Banner-500x750

Free Printable Banner Letters

DIY-Rectangle-Wreath

DIY Rectangle Wreath

 Thanks so much for stopping by!

~Whitney

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8 Comments

  1. There isn’t a discrepancy…the top & bottom rails are 14″. They need to be smaller than the chalkboard so that you can staple the chalkboard to the back.

    The chalkboard is 2×4, which equals 24″ x 48″, so you get (3) chalkboards because 16″ + 16″ + 16″ = 48″.

    Does that make sense?

  2. I love this but I am also confused about the measurement discrepancies! Are they supposed to be 14″ or 16″? Also, if it is a 2ft x 4ft chalkboard, how does it make three chalkboards if it is cut to 16″ x 24″, unless they are just smaller chalkboards. Thanks just trying to clear things up!

  3. In your cuts picture you said the short boards were 14″ but in the rest of the post you said they were 16″. I’m assuming 14″ to give the overhang on the chalkboard? Thanks. Love this