Chalk it Up!

I've been drooling over adding chalkboard paint to my kitchen for a while.

I bought a can of chalkboard paint while I was still pregnant with Peyton with plans to paint an area of my laundry room...that still hasn't happened. I figured it was time to put that can to good use. I don't have a lot of wall space in my kitchen because there are 4 large windows, so I had to figure out a good way to incorporate it into the space.

I stopped by The Dollar Store one afternoon to see if I could find some inspiration (and something cheap). Here's the little beauty I picked up for a whopping $6.



I liked that it had the distressed look, with a little red tint to the frame, which would match the walls in my kitchen.


I slapped on some painter's tape*

And I ended up with this!

And a look from afar

I love it! We make a menu every week, but before we just wrote it down on our grocery list to help plan what we needed to get. That piece of paper always got misplaced or thrown away, and then there would be a night where we couldn't remember what other items we had planned on making for the week. Or we'd forget that we needed to lay something out of the freezer, and then we'd have nothing to make and would end up going out to eat. Having this menu up on the wall makes it so easy for me to take a quick glance over and see if I need to set something in the fridge to thaw, or marinate something and it acts as a general reminder as to what we're having that particular week. Stylish? I think so. Functional? Definitely! Now if I could only get someone with pretty handwriting to come fill it in every week...any takers??

I still have plans for the laundry room that include the chalkboard paint, but that will have to wait until another burst of inspiration hits...don't hold your breath!

* A note on the painter's tape. I do not have a steady hand when it comes to painting, and painter's tape is always my friend. However, you have to apply at least a few coats of the chalkboard paint over the mirror, letting it dry in between coats. Dry paint and painter's tape do not mix! After my first attempt, when I pulled all the painter's tape off, all the chalkboard painted peeled away from the mirror because it was attached to the tape! So, I just had to do it freehand. That's why you'll notice in the close up photo there is some paint on the inside edge of the frame.