Fall Harvest Pottery Barn Knock Off DIY Chalkboard Pillow
This pillow is perfect for today.
Here in Canada, it is Thanksgiving Day.
I guess our weather is often cooler up here so we like to celebrate our harvest season a little earlier…
And speaking of harvesting, we humans aren’t the only ones I’ve seen doing that lately.
The bears around here have been unbelievable!
We’ve seen a Mama Bear with her two little cubs making regular visits around our neighbourhood.
Harvesting all the wild blackberries and trying to fill up before their long winter’s nap.
Speaking of naps, how about curling up for one on this easy DIY Chalkboard Pillow?
Oh ya, it might be kinda scratchy for napping on. But it looks great – so its worth making it anyhow; nap or no nap.
To make this you will need:
- a pillow cover and form (I made my cover out of drop cloth material)
- Chalkboard paint (the recipe for my DIY Chalkboard paint is below)
- Chalk Paint Pen
- Painters Tape and a foam brush
I started out with a simple envelope cover that I had made out of a drop cloth. Yup…bit of a drop cloth trend around here lately. It’s amazing what you can make out of one dropcloth – like this and this and this pillow I’m sharing today…plus you still have leftovers!
Here’s the tutorial for how to sew a simple one-piece envelope cover if you aren’t sure how- once you get the hang of it, it takes only a few minutes.
Once I had sewn my pillow cover, I whipped up some DIY Chalkboard paint using black satin latex paint, unsanded grout, and water….
I originally shared this recipe here.
I taped off a border on the pillow and used a foam brush to apply my chalkboard paint. If your pillow cover is not made of drop cloth material I would also advise you to put some plastic or cardboard between the layers of your pillow so that the paint doesn’t go straight through onto the back of the pillow as well.
Once it was dry I gave it a light sanding…
For writing on your pillow you will want to use a chalk paint pen. If you don`t mind your image being permanent you could also likely use a white paint pen though I didn`t try this.
You’ve heard of “priming” your chalkboards first by rubbing chalk all over them? Well, I chose not to do that because I didn’t want people to get chalk smears all over themselves when they sat on our chairs.
I know, really thoughtful of me, isn’t it?
Lastly, I designed the `chalkboard art` for my pillow by researching quotes and images online. I settled on this cute little autumn haiku poem and copied the simple bird silhouette from my burlap ribbon to create the design:
If you are nervous, I would suggest sketching the whole design out on paper first. Then you could even use some regular chalk to `chalk it out` first on the pillow before tracing over it with your chalk paint pen. The chalk paint pen gives a much more permanent finish and requires a good deal of wiping with a damp cloth to remove the chalk paint – I tested it out on a scrap piece of drop cloth that I painted with the chalkboard paint.
I`m really happy with how it turned out…
I plan to integrate this pillow into my Christmas decorating as well by changing out the `chalkboard art` to a more Christmas related poem or quote (much like this pillow, below, found at Pottery Barn).
If after a few weeks the chalk paint pen doesn’t wipe off as neatly as I would like with a damp cloth (because chalk paint pens are kind of like that…), then I will just throw another quick coat of my homemade chalkboard paint over top before decorating it with my more Christmas-y design.
Want to give it a try?
Pin it to remember it!
Now!
Ready for a little more stunning Fall Harvest-y Inspiration?!?!
Well, then you are in luck!
Today I’ve teamed up with a group of 75 bloggers to share tons of Fall Harvest Ideas with you!
From crafts, to recipes, to home decor and more…we have you covered for Fall inspiration!
Check the gallery below and visit some of my blogging friends to see their awesome ideas!!
LOVE this, Krista!! I’m brainstorming all the possibilities for Christmas … hmmm. Thanks for the tutorial!
Wow! All of the pillows shown are amazing but I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this chalkboard one. I am going to come back and look at all of your posts!
This is adorable.. Will have to try it..
Happy Thanksgiving.. [Hard to say that… I am in Ms [USA], And we have Thanksgiving last of November.ha.
You are so talented.. SO happy I found your blog.
Oooh this is soooo cute!!!!
Oh my goodness Krista!!! How creative!
It looks really cute ! Well done !