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Designer Ideas for Garden Chalkboards (that aren’t just for kids)

Did I mention that it’s April vacation week?  Can you hear the strain in my voice?  Yes, it’s a lot harder to lead my normal life while also keeping an 8-year-old and a 5-year-old constructively entertained.

This morning, after they got their hair cut, we stopped by a new place I recently discovered.  Gallery 56 is a great consignment shop in a nearby town.  I finally found new dishes.  My old set was vintage china sourced at a garage sale in college.  Needless to say, (15+ years later)  it was a few plates short of a set.  I had filled in with some ikea standards, but as it turns out, plate design is kinda important.  The ikea’s are high in the center, annoyingly making our food sauces flow to the outer edges.   I found that these are much better used underneath plants.

Anyway, with new dishes in hand, my daughter and I washed, put away the new (vintage china) set, and swapped out the old.  In the spirit of spring cleaning (and the fact that everyone was happy to help), the insides of the cupboards got a washing, and I decided to paint the inside of my cabinet doors with chalkboard paint.  It was a 5-second decision as I had some paint on hand, but I am so pleased with the results.  It is a perfect place for notes and grocery lists.  And kids love it when you start to spontaneously paint things….

So this a long story to tell you that I want to use chalkboard paint in more places  ( I still have leftovers) and in search of ideas….I came up with these:

A wooden deck with a tree and a chalkboard.
A large outdoor chalkboard is imbedded along a modern black fence so that it blends with the rest of the garden scheme.
A stone wall with a fountain.
A garden in Pacific Heights, CA, was designed by Topher Delaney. The (not real) fish are animated by a bubbling fountain, and a poem by EE Cummings is inscribed on the stairs. The uplighted weatherproof outdoor chalkboard is uplighted to make the art more dramatic.

A sandbox with toys and a chalkboard.
A simple sandbox and step to a house-shaped outdoor garden chalkboard. Image from Karwei.


…proving definitively that there is a place for chalkboard paint in the garden.

More Ideas for Outdoor garden Accessories and Amenities



images from kids in the garden, you grow girl, aloe designs. houzz, sunset magazine, meg hansen, that winsome girl,  and previous P+V posts.

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  1. Nikki Kelly says:

    I would love to see more of the space that has the fish bowl. Is this listed somewhere on your blog?

    • rochelle says:

      Nikki – I don’t have more pictures of that cool fish bowl garden — I wish I did – but I can tell you that it was designed by topher delaney and its in san francisco — The picture is from sunset magazine

  2. Like your blog! Great ideas, keep ’em coming.

  3. deborah says:

    i came across your site researching spas for small garden spaces/ have been creating childrens outdoor nature/art spaces for the last three years/ different types of rock and stone…various use of tree pieces….the focal point has always been a huge chalkboard. it looks so wonderful to see children’s art in your yard…..parents get in on it too…….everyone loves to express themselves

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