DIY chalk paint

The boys went nuts over this super easy DIY chalk paint today!

I’m talking played for 3 hours with no distractions and had to be pulled away for a nap. I don’t usually find that chalk holds their attention for more than 10-15 minutes. But chalk paint? This DIY was a home run!

All you need to entertain your kids all day long is:

• old chalk
• new chalk (to replace the old! I took this as a good time to buy this fresh box of anti-roll chalk)
• water
• a muffin tin (or whatever you want the paint in but this was super easy for little ones and less likely to spill than 10 cups)
• ziplock baggies
• a hammer
• paint brushes

As you can see, we didn’t have a TON of old chalk, and the colors were all over the place. It turned out to be plenty of paint for 2 boys for several hours, though.

Step One

Sort the chalk into like colors and zip them up into baggies. Just go for like colors since one random tiny pieces of orange isn’t enough to do much with and could be easily added to yellow or red, for example. See our “blue” bag was pretty varied.

Step Two

Crush up the chalk with a hammer! Kids helping on this step is highly encouraged, although their toy hammers won’t do much. Use a towel when hammering so you don’t put holes in the bag.

No perfection required here. The finer the powder the better but our paint was rather lumpy. Do you think the 2 and 4 year old were bothered by this? Negative.

Step Three

Mix up your paint in a muffin tin! Sprinkle in powder first and then slowly add warm water and stir it up. Be careful not to go too runny–you’ll get better with consistency as you go.

Step Four

Put on some play clothes (it won’t stain but it’s messy) and go HAVE FUN!

Eventually the kids ventured on to other surfaces. Most notably: leaves, their bodies, and a bike. But it’s just chalk so I said go for it. They were thrilled!

The bottom of the paint tins had chunks that actually turned out cool on the leaves!

You may want to plan on a picnic lunch after all that fun/mess! It was worth it and super easy to wash off.

Can’t recommend this activity enough!

Unlike a ton of the crafts I try with the kids, this DIY chalk paint was super hands off for me. Other than mixing it up, they didn’t need my help to do anything and loved the freedom to get messy.