Chalkboard Paper

We are not sure how long we will be living in Jakarta exactly so I have been trying very hard not to accumulate alot of things.  We came over with a few suitcases and that is how we plan on leaving.  The kids used to have a big chalkboard easel that they liked to play with.  A while ago, I saw an image online of a child's room that had been decorated with cut out images from chalkboard paper.  The images were in the shape of flowers and kids could then color on the chalkboard paper with chalk.  Back then I thought it was a great idea, but I never did follow up on the idea.

 I recently decided to read up on chalkboard paper and found that you can use black contact paper the same way.  I meant to put in an order for black contact paper before we left to go back to Texas so that I could pick it up while we were there.  I forgot to order the paper.  Luckily, my sister-in-law, who happens to be an elementary education major, had a large roll of black contact paper.  She had affixed a large piece to their refigerator for her kids to draw or color on.   She offered to let me have as much black contact paper as I wanted.  I cut out a piece that I thought would be a good size for my younger daughter's room.  Both my girls love it!  The chalk adheres really well to the contact paper.  The paper can always be removed without damaging the walls.  I've left contact paper on for years and it doesn't damage the walls.  However, on flat paint, it does seem to leave a little bit of a sticky residue.  It's not really noticeable though. 

A large roll of black contact paper costs around $6 to $7.  Another one of my sister-in-laws said that you can order contact paper through office supply stores like STAPLES so that you don't have to incur shipping costs.  I really like the black contact paper chalkboard.  You can also adhere the black contact paper to a magnetic board to make a magnetic chalkboard.  I might move the contact paper to the refrigerator so that it can be a combination chalkboard/magnetic board and it would also be a good message board. 

If you are interested in using contact paper to make wall decals, check out my post on contact paper wall art.