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.

Our Home ... in its current state

Some friends and out-of-town family have requested pictures of our house.  So here it is:

The Living Room

 The Piano Room:

The Foyer:

The Dining Room:

The china cabinet on the left in currently in the process of being painted.  I will post pictures when it's done!

Spare Bedroom (Coral Room):

I still have a few projects to do in this room.  I am going to paint the bedside table and an armoire.

Our New House!

We have successfully moved into our new house.  We have gotten a lot of rooms painted and several projects are in the works (including a farmhouse table for our dining room - post to come).  The boys (Jeff and some of our friends) have done tons of work in the backyard - chopping down trees, clearing out a lot of brush, digging up an old goldfish pond, etc.  It is starting to look sooooo much better :) We love the new house and are enjoying making it our own.  And Riggins loves it too!