I’ve been meaning to make a DIY blackboard cloud and lightening bolt for a kid’s room for months now. I finally found the time to make this project happen.
We chose a cloud and lightening bolt for the design because we’re in the process of redecorating our son’s room (and when I say ‘process’ I mean we talk about it every other month saying, ‘we really need to redecorate that room!’).
We’ve come up with a vague theme though, and we wanted a design for the blackboard that’s going to work with that theme once we get around to it.
Before making our final decision we jumped onto Pinterest to gather some inspiration. There were some really great ideas, but a lot of what I found were whole wall ideas, and I’m less into having the whole wall painted!
Here are 2 of my favourite designs I found when hunting around on Pinterest:
These are both really cool for different reasons, although neither was quite right for what we wanted. As the room’s theme is going to be some sort of city-scape, we kept coming back to the idea of a rain cloud.
Now a black rain cloud makes a lot of sense for a blackboard, but it also seems a little… well, bleak. That’s when we came up with the idea of adding a lightening bolt to the rain cloud. The whole cloud and lightening thing just seemed to make sense for a boy’s room. And when we added a little bit of electric blue to the lightening bolt, the whole project came to life!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BWY1SwGABVk/?taken-by=kiwifamilies
DIY blackboard cloud and electric blue lightening bolt
What you need
1 small sheet of plywood
Jigsaw
Sandpaper
Pencil
Undercoat or primer
Resene Blackboard Paint 1 litre
Resene Riptide test pot
Paint brush or small roller
What to do
1. First, hand draw a cloud shape and a lightening bolt shape onto your piece of plywood. You can use a template for this, but a free-hand shape is usually more quirky and organic looking.
2. Use the jigsaw to cut around the shapes, and sand the surface and edges of the shapes to remove any corners and rough bits.
3. Using a paint brush, or small roller, paint both faces and edges of your shapes with the undercoat or primer. You’ll need to wait for one face to be touch dry before you can flip the shape over and paint the other face.
4. Once dry, lightly sand to remove any dust and brush/roller marks.
5. Now apply your first coat of Resene Blackboard Paint to the edges and front face of the cloud and lightening bolt. The product says to let each layer dry for at least 3 hours before applying the next coat. So you’ll need to do this over a whole day, or leave it overnight to dry.
6. Give the surface a light sand between each coat to remove small imperfections. You want to end up with a relatively smooth surface.
7. Let the final layer dry completely, preferably overnight.
8. When completely dry, tape off about 1-2cm around the edges of your lightening bolt, and paint the edge with Resene Riptide. Add 2 more coats, letting the paint dry completely between coats.
9. Remove the tape, and stick the plywood shapes to the wall using 3m style removable strips.
10. Get some chalk and a chalkboard duster, and let your child’s imagination go wild!
I hope you liked our DIY blackboard cloud with electric blue lightening bolt article. If you want some more DIY inspiration check out our DIY rainbow shelf and Easy to make outdoor fairy door.
We love seeing your creations, so if you create a cloud blackboard or other shape send us a pic. Just #kiwifamilies on social, or find our email on our Contact us page.
