DIY Sidewalk Chalk Paint for Kids

This simple sidewalk paint practically guarantees your kids will have hours of fun. You can easily make this recipe with ingredients you already have at home, for just pennies. Give this outdoor chalk paint a try and see what creative designs your children come up with. 

An affordable DIY project that doesn’t require me to go to the store? Sign me up! Even better, this sidewalk paint is a simple enough project that your kids can make it all on their own. And when they’re done…they’ll play with it for hours! Seriously, moms, this one is an all-around home run!

DIY Sidewalk Paint

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Painting is a favorite activity for kids, if not for moms (mess anyone?), but when you take it outside as sidewalk chalk paint, you’ve got a winner for everyone.

Not only for all the reasons above but for the sole fact that kids will be painting (happily!) outside. Yup, you heard me right—your children will be happily painting and the mess will stay outside, so we moms get to keep our sanity too. But this isn’t just any ol’ paint.

This kid-friendly sidewalk paint combines paint with chalk for an extra fun version. When kids paint the sidewalk chalk onto the driveway or sidewalk, it will dry into a pretty chalk creation later. And just like chalk, this outdoor chalk paint will vanish with water.

Honestly, I can hardly think of a better outdoor activity for warm summer days!

By the way, if you are looking for an indoor paint to use, I recommend this homemade puffy paint. Kids love it!

How to Make DIY Sidewalk Chalk Paint

Like all the kids’ activities we share, DIY Sidewalk Chalk Paint for Kids is super easy to make. It’s so simple, kids can help or even make it all by themselves!

And all you need are a couple common household ingredients and food coloring.

Ingredients for Outdoor Chalk Paint

For each batch, you’ll need:

• 1/3 cup baking soda
• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• 3/4-1 cup water
• food coloring (for bright vivid colors, use food color gel.)
• paint brushes or squeeze bottles

If you want to “spray” the paint on as my kids did, you can find squeeze bottles on Amazon.

Note: we tried and tried to get this sidewalk chalk paint to work in spray bottles (how fun would THAT be?!) but it either clogged the bottle or was so watery, it wasn’t worth it. After 5 or 6 different batches, we gave up and switched to squeeze bottles instead. They work great and my kids loved them!

You can also use paintbrushes or sponges for this fun activity. I like to rotate what we use to keep my kids busy and happy.

How to Make Sidewalk Chalk Paint:

Start with 3/4 to 1 cup of water in a bowl or measuring cup. If you’re using the squeeze bottles I recommend 1 cup of water. If you’re using paintbrushes, it can be a little thicker so I’d only use 3/4 cup water.

Pour 1/3 cup corn starch into the water.

Stir it up with a spoon or whisk, breaking up any clumps.

Next, add 1/3 cup baking soda.

Stir it up, again breaking apart any clumps.

Pour into your squeeze bottle. (You can skip this step if you’re using paintbrushes; instead, pour it into a small container)

Lastly, squeeze a few drops of food color into the mixture. We use Americolor food gel for the bright vivid colors we get. (A little goes a long way and the bottles last forever!)

You can add more color for brighter colors, but a word of caution: have the kids wear junk clothes! Or simply use less color, but keep in mind the sidewalk chalk paint won’t show up as well on the pavement.

Put the top on your squeeze bottle and shake it well to mix up the color.

That’s it! See how easy?

Do this for as many batches and different colors of DIY sidewalk chalk paint you want to make.

How to Use the DIY Chalk Paint

I left large bags/containers of baking soda and cornstarch outside for my kids to use and they made lots. It was a fun way to keep them occupied for an afternoon while I finished some work inside.

My kids loved mixing different colors and sometimes just spraying randomly to see what happened.

See how the color start drying? This homemade sidewalk paint has a pretty chalk-like finish.

Even our chickens had to check out our sidewalk chalk paint! They were quite curious and tried tasting it. Thank goodness, it’s non-toxic!

And that’s DIY Sidewalk Chalk Paint for kids!

Your children will love this fun activity and you might even want to join them for a chalk painting party! Pin the post on Pinterest to save the instructions for later.

More Fun Painting Activities for Kids:

• Bubble Painting Activity
• How to Make a Sponge Painting Rainbow
• Simple-Ingredient Puffy Paint
• Two-Ingredient Edible Finger Paint