One of the things I love about our smurf house is the painted chalkboard in the backyard. It’s about 7′ x 5′, I think. Total guesstimate here. The previous owners had a toddler as well and they built their own chalkboard wall with chalkboard paint
, plywood and a wood frame. I don’t think they knew how to clean the board because when we moved in, it was still full of scribbles. We tried to use a regular chalkboard eraser – no luck. It just made smudges.
Fast forward to the summer, the guests at Spawn’s first birthday party had a blast scribbling on the chalkboard. And after the party, I still could not rub that stuff off. The good ol’ vinegar and water mixture did not work.
We dug around and tried a solution off the internet. A few articles said you could use Coca-Cola to clean a painted chalkboard. WHUT. I love regular Coke, and I wasn’t willing to waste delicious caffeinated Coke for this endeavor. However, I did have a ton of leftover Diet Coke from her party. Diet Coke is the devil.
I poured half a can of Diet Coke into my awesome Butterbeer mug, soaked a new rag and went to town on the chalkboard.
It started to work! Holy crap.
I stopped and had to rinse out the mug and rag. There was so much blue chalk on the chalkboard. I repeated this six times. Three cans of Diet Coke did the trick.

Halfway there!

I kept the flower up. Once the chalkboard was clean, I went back and soaked a rag in water and cleaned up any residual Diet Coke on the board.
Amazing, right?
This could be a post about how toxic Diet Coke is. What is it doing in your body if it can clean chalkboards? Well, it’s not that type of post though I stand by my opinion that Mexican Coke is the best and Diet Coke can suck it.
Side note: We’re saving money to build an addition to our home. This will knock out the existing chalkboard wall, and we’ll have to build a new one. (It won’t happen for a while – do you know how much additions cost? Holy crap.)
In the meantime, tell me in the comments – have you wanted make your own chalkboard wall? Are you inspired with just a few pieces to build your own?
Disclosure: Post contains affiliate links. Build your own painted chalkboard outside or maybe on an interior wall at home!
This post makes me realize how BAD Diet Coke is for our bodies. But it can sure clean a chalkboard. Good to know!