Kitchen Message Center

I do a lot of web surfing for my inspirations and this one comes from fabulous kitchens like this:

traditional kitchen design by san francisco architect Gast Architects

And this:

other design

…and this too.

I love love love this idea, but buying a chalkboard that would fit this awkward section of wall was just not realistic. So I went and asked the Lowes guy at the paint counter if they had chalkboard paint, which they did, but he also told me we could use any MATTE finish paint color and use it like a chalkboard. I liked this idea much better since I wasn’t all that excited to paint a part of my wall dark black….and it was cheaper. So we picked out "Mark Twaine Gray Brick" (...where do they come up with this stuff??)…which gave us a darker space, but wasn’t super black.

I marked out the area I wanted to paint with a pencil and slapped on a few coats of paint.

We picked up an 8 foot piece of moulding we found for about $5 in the moulding section at Lowes and used that for the frame. Jon and his dad cut it to size and we nailed it to the wall, filled in the nail holes with wood spackle, and done! LOVE IT!

…now if we could just remember to buy chalk at the store!