We have a lovely stone fireplace in our living room. It goes all the way up to the ceiling, it has a rustic wooden mantel for holding knickknacks, and it makes a great focal point for the room. Unfortunately, lovely decorative built-in things seem to be a magnet for destructive children.

My wise and prophetic husband long ago banned crayons from the house. Our poor, deprived children were stuck with either washable markers or colored pencils. Apparently, his mother didn’t get the memo; one Christmas she gave all of the kids crayons in their Christmas stockings. In the spirit of the season, I figured I’d let the kids play with them while Grandma was here, and then they would mysteriously disappear in the night while the kids were sleeping.

I should have known better. Later that afternoon I found my six-year-old merrily coloring on the fireplace. *sigh*

So, for the last year, I have been trying to figure out just what I should do. All of the tips I found on the internet for removing crayon didn’t seem like they would work on the very porous stone of our fireplace – or they might even make it worse. So I just left it, cringing every time someone came over to visit.
Then yesterday, I though of a plan. I couldn’t get rid of it, but maybe I could just hide it . . .

So here’s what I made:



I think it hides the crayon marks nicely, without looking too out of place.



(But I would still appreciate any good tips for getting crayon off of stone!!!)