How to make a faux chalkboard from foam core and paint markers

Occasionally I get a request for a chalk board sign. As long as the message on the sign is permanent, many times it makes more sense to make it out of foam core board than buy an actual chalk board. It's not always easy to locate an actual chalk board in the size that you need. Not to mention the cost. Lots of these faux signs could be made for the price of one real chalk board. This type of sign would be ideal for a business that wants to create signs with a "market" or "rustic" feel. Let's run through the steps of how to make one of these.

I began by cutting all the pieces. I needed a 3x4 foot sign, so I cut a piece of black foam core board to that size. Then I cut 4 strips of white foam core board for the frame pieces. I made them 1-1/2 inches wide and a little longer than the 4 sides of the black foam core board.

Next, I used a paint marker to color the strips to look like wood. I used a 15mm Amber paint marker made by Hardcore, although any light brown paint market would work. You can find lots of options at DickBlick. Please use the handy link on the side bar to your right.

It's a good idea to practice on some scrap foam core board to get a feel for this.

I applied the color in long, uninterrupted passes along the entire length of the strip. Each pass should overlap the last pass slightly. In the picture above you can see that I made two passes. The darker strip in the middle shows where the two passes overlapped.

Make the passes fairly straight, but not perfectly strait. There should be a little bit of waviness to achieve a proper "woodgrain" look. It took 4 or five passes to cover each strip of foam core board.

Once the faces of all the pieces are done, it's time to paint the long side edges.

This really establishes the "wooden" look. You can really see how much of a difference painting the edge makes.

Next, it's time to attach and trim the frame pieces. I decided that this chalk board will be vertical, so I attached the top and bottom frame pieces first using double stick foam tape. 

When I attached the strips, I purposefully left a little bit extending off the edge on each side.
 

Then I flipped the whole thing over and trimmed the strips flush.

The last step is to trim and attach the side pieces. First, I butted the left end up against the strip I just taped down...

...and while I held that end, I lined up the right end. You can see that I left plenty of extra material.

I marked where it needed to be cut so it would fit into place. 

Using a ruler as a guide, I cut off the excess with an exacto knife.

Now that it fit into place, I taped it down with double stick foam tape.

Lastly, I colored the ends of the frame pieces that were still white. Here is what the ends looked like before...

...and this is what they looked like after. 

There you have it. A faux chalk board ready for text!