Chalkboard Shelf using a Cabinet Door

This large chalkboard shelf is so different than anything I’ve done before, and I love it! Staging it was a lot of fun too, be sure to read all about it at the end of the post.

If you’ve been a friend for a long time, you probably have seen this picture before. My friend Shannon for Quarry Orchard gave me her stash of cabinet doors a few years ago. I’ve been working my way through them, one by one.

I’ve had these $5 spindles for a couple of years now, and I’ve only used a few of the bundle. Then I saw this in a roundup I’m included in , and knew I needed to make it.

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Large cabinet door chalkboard shelf design

This is how this large chalkboard shelf came together. Using one large cabinet door, two thrift store spindles, a 1×4, and a scrap piece of wide tongue and groove,  I started designing my new project.

I used Gorilla Glue Construction Adhesive to attach the spindles to the cabinet door and the shelves.

Glue and clamp chalkboard project

I had used the tongue and groove on a red chair bench seat, with one lonely piece leftover. That is what I used for the bottom shelf.

Paint cabinet door shelf

I used some diy chalky paint primer with some purple oops to do the first primer coat on the large chalkboard shelf. No need to waste my black paint as a primer when I have some $7 oops paint, right?

I used my Homeright Finish Max and semi-gloss Behr (Beluga) to spray the front and the back, but skipping the part that would become the chalkboard.

Easy DIY crackle finish

I’ve used diluted glue as a crackle medium before, and thought I would give it another try, but with a different twist. I brushed it on with a cheap chip brush.

I’m not sure if I diluted the glue too much, or if I didn’t let it set up enough, but it didn’t turn out quite like I had hoped.

Paint sprayer  paint over crackle medium

Here’s the twist! The key to getting white glue to crackle is to NOT overwork the topcoat of paint. What better way to not do that, than to use my Finish Max to spray on the topcoat of Polished Pearl.

Some of the paint crackled better than other parts. Again, I didn’t bother painting the portion that would be the chalkboard.

Here’s another view of the crackling process.

d rings for hanging

I used my favorite d rings on the back for hanging. You can see in this picture that I left the back black instead of crackling it.

Not shown: I brought it in the house to paint the chalkboard using a sponge brush and Rustoleum Chalkboard Paint.

Cabinet door Chalkboard Shelf

Each of these boards is 5.5 inches wide, so overall this large chalkboard shelf measures almost 40” across!

Here is the cabinet door chalkboard shelf all decked out with some of my old teacher memorabilia from back in the day!

These items resided on my desk for many, many years, including the little frazzled lady that says “My Class did this to me”. I felt like that many days teaching four year old pre-school for 19 years!

I have many more cabinet doors and spindles, so I may be doing another version of this in the near future. After I finished it, I already had ideas of how I would change it up if I were to do it again.

How to make a chalkboard shelf out of an old cabinet door, vintage spindles and scrap wood. Easy weekend project shows you how to use white glue as a crackle medium. MyRepurposedLife.com

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There are a lot more cabinet door projects here