Chalkboard Paint – Lahori Version

When I asked the folks at Anees Book Corner  if they carry chalkboard paint, they simply stared back. Blank face. No expression.

K grinned.

O! He grinned his evil grin. Have I mentioned before how I loathe that grin? That and his former inability to accept the fact that chalkboard paint is really a thing. In that very moment, being sandwiched between blank faces and an evil grin, I decided to prove ’em wrong.

I turned to Pinterest for a DIY chalkboard paint recipe. The only problem was that the recipe I found called for unsanded grout. How do you say unsanded in Urdu? No one I know knew.

And so ladies and gentlemen, I found myself in the tile market in Ichra without a proper term. Ask me not how much I wished upon a Home Depot in the half hour I spent trying to explain the term un-sanded and what I needed this particular kind of grout for? Eventually, a man asked me what color is it supposed to be. Now I had seen it on the Internet; grainy and white. I had done my research. He gave me a jar of the grainy white grout and asked me to cross my fingers. It worked. Yes! I blended it in acrylic paint and viola!!!

I have since used the paint everywhere, even on a birthday gift I DIY-ed for E that went unaccepted. All you need is one table spoon of basic tile grout (100 rupees per jar), half a cup of acrylic paint (color of your choice) and an evil grin! Mix the grout with acrylic paint and let the evil grin keep you motivated while you blend the mixture to remove any clumps. Apply it, honey! Slather it on! Those walls are your canvas.