Chalkboard Fridge

I decided to tackle a small craft project in my never-ending quest to decorate and "me-ify" our new house. 

Presenting: Chalkboard Fridge

 I only wanted to do one side, but had originally seen the idea at The Handmade Home. Memaw gave us her fridge when she moved to independent living (among other furniture, for which we are very grateful!), but in the move this side had gotten a little scratched...plus it's the only side that is fully open... plus chalkboard stuff is all over pinterest... plus it's fun, so I wasn't too scurred about the change.

1. Clean your fridge

2.Purchase BOTH Chalkboard Paint and Rust-Oleum Magnetic Primer (total $40). This primer is important for several reasons:

A. To ensure the fridge stays magnetic through layers of paint.

B. To get the chalkboard paint to stick to the side of the fridge.

C. (Per Lowe's paint guy) To keep the latex paint from rusting the side of your fridge. I do not know if that is true, it is just what I was told. 

3. Prime your fridge. 

A few tips from the can: shake the hell out of it for several minutes (they did not say hell), use a foam roller brush, and do THREE thin coats, waiting 30 minutes in between to dry.

The first coat was pretty thin, and I only waited 20 minutes for coat #2 because little man was waking up from his nap. I could tell that it affected it a bit, but not too much. 

3. Chalkboard Paint it!

Chad and I discussed using a color other than black, but decided to just go with "normal color" for now. The black and white contrast doesn't bother me. I did two coats of the paint (30 minutes in between) and let it dry for 24 long hours before writing on it. 

Tada!! I think it is a really fun addition to our kitchen/casual dining area!

And Emmet likes it!

No-no, sweet boy - don't eat the chalk!!! We are working on that.

So, there ya go! An easy peasy chalkboard project!

Our House

...is a very very very fine house.

It is, but needs style and decorating and taking out some of the 1979 "charm" (like the wet bar in the middle of the living room). I have a lot of good ideas (thank you Pinterest) but I am lacking in the money/time/skill arena. Here are my goals for now:

1. Add Color
I like bright and bold and fun. I just need to find the right elements to speak to me and then go for it. Also, I want to paint every wall in my house, but that will take time, I guess (see #4).

2. Salvage
All of the coolest pins have a re-purposed old door or shutters or picture frame - so Emily and I are going to go to some Dallas salvage places I have heard of and see if we can make something happen! I'm excited!

3. Crafty
I need to hone my crafty skills.

4. Be Realistic
Decorating a home takes time and money and I have neither of those things. So I will take deep breaths and pace myself :) I don't want to throw together things that I don't actually love just to be done decorating.

Is this just me? Does everyone else just already have a perfectly put together house? That's the way it seems sometimes.

Shout Out

I have been reading home design blogs years before I actually had a home. I love catching up with Emily at Jones Design Company and Holly and Holly Mathis Interiors. Recently, Ashley at The Handmade Home has been doing a color tutorial series about using color in your home. I have been agonizing over several different color choices for the living room, master and Emmet's room since we first looked at our house. I have yet to purchase any paint... not even a sample. Anyway, I left a comment to Ashley about doing white well and she actually devoted an entire post to my question and used my name and called me sweet!! If only I could get her to come hand design my home... sigh. So here is the post about ME (well, sorta) on the Handmade Home:

http://www.thehandmadehome.net/2012/04/color-theory-101-doing-white-right/

Hopefully I will have some design in my home to show off soon :)

Lava!