Kitchen Chalkboard Project

To be a plate rack or not to be ... 

Yet another project from start to finish that took should have taken well less than an hour of active participation. This void used to be a plate rack that rarely was dusted which meant the plates never were used since it would have required washing them before AND after eating off of them. Uhh ... double the work or use different plates ... bingo, the second choice :)

the BEFORE

I had a quart of chalkboard paint leftover from another project and thought it would be fun to have place to use all those cute chalkboard ideas off of pinterest. I love the the idea of chalkboard decor and being able to change it with the seasons or holidays ... although I know this will never happen as often as I intend it to. :)  Jess at 'Mom 4 Real' shares a simple way to make chalkboard paint in any color, can't wait to find an excuse to try this!

wet paint ... do not touch

Since the space was small, the painting itself didn't take long, but with three coats needed and the dry time in between, the start to finish time was a couple hours.

The chalkboard paint needed 2 to 3 days to cure before drawing on it, so it needed a few days before the finishing touch ... which actually turned into at least a month for me... oh life, why must I let you distract me from these fun projects.

the finished project

I'm loving the cute little nook for my cookbook stand, our 'garage-sale-find' change jar, and the much needed napkin holder for our family of six. However, the picture above is very deceiving since I so conveniently cropped out the extremely messy counter. This, my friends, is real life around here more often than I would like to think ... the mess I had to push through (mentally and physically) to get my kitchen chalkboard project completed!

 I would prefer to work in a clean and organized environment which when you have kids usually means - clean first ... then create ... then clean again, ugh! Through a life with kids I have come to realize life will always bring with it distractions, sometimes those distractions need our attention and we need to be interruptible ... other times we need to put on the binders and keep pushing through.