Magnetic Chalkboard

I had a big, empty wall in my kitchen, and my kitchen needed some character.  So, what better to add in the kitchen than a giant magnetic chalkboard.

First, I taped off where I wanted the chalkboard to be.  I used a small foam roller (for smooth finish) to apply Rustoleum Magnetic Primer.  This primer is pretty expensive ($20 for a quart), but I only used about half of the can for my board.  I did have to use about 7-8 coats to get the magnetic strength that I wanted. [Also, this primer is not latex - so it is NOT easy to wash off.]

This is what the primer looked like after 2 coats.

This is what it looked like after about 6 coats, and magnets were finally sticking.

After what seemed like a million coats of the magnetic primer, the magnets were finally sticking.  I then applied three coats of Rustoleum Chalkboard Paint.  I used the same kind of foam roller for the chalkboard paint too. [Chalkboard paint is latex and is very easy to clean.]

After letting the chalkboard paint dry for 3 days, I prepared the chalkboard surface by rubbing the side of a piece of chalk all over the board and then erasing. [If you do not prepare the surface, your first drawing will stay on the board forever (supposedly).]

Then, we added a border to the chalkboard using wall/window moulding.  We used a miter box and saw to cut the moulding at 45 degrees.  We nailed the moulding into the wall with finishing nails and caulked all of the corners.

Voila!

 

Kitchen Upgrades

We are finally done with all of the upgrades to our kitchen, or at least the upgrades that we can afford right now.

1. We changed out the hardware on all of the kitchen cabinets.  The kitchen cabinets had dark brass handles and hinges.  They were very loud and antique looking with almost a floral pattern on them. They had to go.  We replaced the hinges with white hinges, so that they blended in with the white cabinets.  We replaced the door handles with a simple brushed nickel handle and added brushed nickel cup pulls to the drawers.

2. I added a magnetic chalkboard on the previously big, empty wall.  You can read a detailed post about the chalkboard here.

What else would you put on a giant chalkboard except the Alabama football schedule?

3. I made some cafe curtains for the window in the kitchen.  Can I sew? NOPE.  Can I use stitch-whitchery? Yeppers.

Notice the framed art?  "I love you more than college football Saturdays." Our house is very football themed right now.

4. I upgraded some barstools that were given to us by recovering the seats with the same fabric as the curtains.

5. We built that island.  You can read the detailed post about our island here.

We Built an Island

Ever since we moved into our house in May, I have wanted to add an island to our kitchen.  Our kitchen had a very open floorplan, and we wanted to add some cabinet/drawer space and some seating. So we built an island.

We started with some unfinished stock cabinets that we bought at Lowe's. One single cabinet and one double cabinet.

The sides of the cabinets were not finished - they were made of a cork-like material.  So we used beadboard paneling to finish off the sides.

We covered the three sides with the beadboard and caulked around the seams (more on caulking later).

We also decided that we wanted to add a bookshelf on the outside end to give the island some character and a customized look.  We actually had some 1x10s laying around the shed, so we constructed some shelves.  We placed a scrap piece of  2x4 vertically under the bottom shelf to keep it up off the floor.

Next, we placed baseboard moulding around the bottom of the three sides and corner moulding down the four corners.  We also added a piece of decorative moulding to cover the seam between the cabinet and the bookshelf boards. Then, we caulked everything - and I mean everything (make sure to use paintable caulk).  We caulked around all of the baseboard moulding, corner moulding pieces, and all of the bookshelf boards.

Then, it was time to prime and paint.  I used two coats of Kilz primer.  The beadboard was already primed, so I really just primed the front of the cabinets/drawers, the bookshelf, and the moulding.  I used two coats of Valspar paint, waiting the recommended amount of time between each coat.  The recommended full cure time was 7 days, so we waited 7 days before putting the doors and drawers back on.

close up of the different mouldings

decorative moulding between cabinet and shelves

For the countertop, we used a 3/4 inch thick piece of oak.  We measured it to hang over 1 inch on 3 of the sides and 12 inches overhang for the bar side.  We used a bowl to mark the curved corners of the top, and used a jigsaw to cut it.  I used two coats of stain and two coats of polyurethane.  The cabinets came with braces with screw holes to attach the countertop with.  We used wood screws to attach the top, making sure that the screws did not go all the way through.  

We also added some decorative support braces under the countertop.

Last, we added some door handles and drawer cup pulls, and finally we were finished!!

This was a very long project that we worked on for over a month.  There was an unfinished island with no countertop in the middle of our kitchen for a very long time.  But I am very happy with the result!

My Home's in Alabama

We recently had to buy a jigsaw for another project that we are working on (post to come).  This jigsaw has opened up so many possibilities for me - things that I have been wanting to make, but haven't had a chance.

Well, our sweet friends Matt and Kimberlee are moving to Canada next week.  I wanted to make them something for their new Canadian house that would remind them of home.  So this is what I made for them:

I used this website to print out the shape of the state.  The site lets you choose how big you want to print the state (it also has countries and world maps and stuff too - it is a great resource). http://www.yourchildlearns.com/megamaps.htm

I traced the shape of Alabama onto a thin piece of plywood from Home Depot, and then Jeff (and Taylor too, I think) cut out the state with the jigsaw.  I sanded the wood lightly, just to get a smooth finish.  I painted the whole thing white.  Then, I created a chevron stencil from some cardstock, by first measuring out some squares, and then drawing diagonal lines to make the zig-zag.  I then taped the chevron stripes that I wanted to remain white and painted over the whole thing with a "crimson" color that I attempted to mix.  To give it a little bit of a more rustic and muted look, I used a dry brush with just a tiny bit of white paint to make the subtle white brushstrokes.  I bought the heart shape from Hobby Lobby, painted it grey, and hot glued it to where Tuscaloosa is on the map.

Kimberlee says that she will hot glue some ribbon to the back and make a cute bow so that she can hang it on the wall.  She will be way better at making the bow/hanger than me anyway.  (You can check out her blog, awesome sewing skills, and Canadian adventures here: http://tobefranklin.blogspot.com/)

Have fun in Canada, Franklin's!  We will miss you!

If anyone is interested in purchasing a state door hanger, a country door hanger (perfect for international adoptions, missions, etc.), Christmas door hanger, or any other holidays - email me or let me know!  I will be glad to make one for you or for you to give as gifts!