Thirsty Thursday: DIY Chalkboard Wine Glasses

For the past year or so, I’ve been loving the black chalkboard trend in home decor. And then I saw these wine glasses floating around Pinterest, and I thought, OK…chalkboard + alcohol…I’m sold! But there are two reasons I almost didn’t make them.

First, I tend to run the other direction when I hear the phrase “DIY.”

My mom? Is great at doing things herself. She can look at, say, a $150 cream-colored yoga bag with a big bow on it (totally a thing, a thing that I actually love) and she’d say, “OK, Rachel, this probably cost them $4 to make.” And before I know it, she’s turning it inside out and showing me their crappy stitches and telling me how easily one could make this. And I’m always thinking, “No…you could make it.” (Which is why I’m e-mailing her about the yoga bag tonight.)

You’ve seen the costumes, but honestly, you haven’t seen the half of what my mom can build and create. You should see the rocket ship loft bed she built my brother over the summer.

So yeah…when it comes to DIY, I have some insecurities.

The other reason I didn’t initially want to make the wine glasses was because I was pretty sure that black chalkboard paint is pretty much the hipster version of a Bedazzler and I just wasn’t ready to go there.

In the end, I set my issues aside and went for it. I bought a set of four glasses at Target for about $6 and the chalkboard paint at Wal-mart for about $10. Oh and a $2 box of chalk. I was hoping I could tell this was an awesome $20 DIY Christmas gift.

And you know what? I actually can tell you that!

I followed the directions on this blog and did as the author recommended, moving my glasses around the wax paper every 20 minutes or so until they dried.

It took me a while to complete them (I did three coats and you have to let the paint dry for four hours between coats; you also have to wait three days after the last coat before you can write on them) and it eventually turned into a side project. Because I got a little impatient toward the end and rushed the last coat, the paint wasn’t perfectly matte on all of the glasses. I think that even someone without my mother’s skills and precision could easily make them good enough to gift. However, this batch is good enough for me and my boxed wine!

Now that I have a bunch of chalkboard paint, I want to apply this technique to other glassware like mugs and from there…well, like I said. Chalkboard paint is the hipster Bedazzler.

Of course, there is the other issue here that I can’t ignore — the fact that if I do, in fact, dip more items in chalkboard paint, then that probably makes me a hipster. I was having a hard time with it until I finally thought, What doesn’t make me a hipster these days? It’s getting to the point that I just find myself thinking on a daily basis, “Ya know, if the dark glasses, grandpa sweaters, community manager job title, and bearded boyfriend fit…”

And I think I’m kinda over fighting it.