New Project: Chalkboard Cabinet Door

In my opinion coming home from work only to try to figure out what to make for dinner is one of the worst things ever. Your brain is fried, you're tired and no one can decide what they want. The only way that I can prevent this from happening is to plan a menu, buy groceries according to the menu (so that we have everything we need) and post it so that Brandon can see what we'll be having for the next two weeks.

The problem is I write my menu on my grocery list. And my grocery list goes in my purse.....or in my pocket.....or in my coupon holder. And it almost never gets posted right away. In a morning rush this is the conversation between myself and the hubs:

Him: "What should I take out for dinner tonight?"
Me: "I don't know."
Him: "Well what's on the list?"
Me: "I can't remember.
Him: "Well, where is it?"
Me: "Ummm, I'm not sure right now."

SO, in order to avoid all of this, and since I have this newly painted kitchen which I am organizing and prettying, I decided to paint the inside of one of our cupboards with chalkboard paint. I can write out the menu after I have it done and there will be no question as to where it is. Also, we can cross off the ones we've already had so we don't end up having the same thing twice in one week (it's happened).

First Brandon had to sand down the inside of the door. Then I wanted to tape off a border for two reasons;, 1) for decorative purposes, and 2) so that I didn't have to worry about the screw from the knob or the hinges. First, I measured two inches in all the way around and made small marks to make sure the tape was straight.

Next I taped off the border:

Then, in order to prevent those nasty paint leaks under the tape, I painted the tape line with a clear acrylic. This is the kind we had at home already:

As soon as the clear acrylic was dry I got to start painting the chalkboard. After the first coat it was clear a few more were needed.

After the third coat was dry I pulled the tape off and low and behold there was a beautiful new chalkboard!

After you paint the chalkboard you have to wait three days before you apply any chalk so today I got to condition it and start using it. You condition the chalkboard by rubbing a white piece of chalk all over the board and then wiping it off with the eraser. This preps the board so that it erases easier in the future. Finally, I got to write my menu on the board!

Since we often also have a handful of recipes from magazines and we have another cabinet right next door that will fully open when the menu door is fully open, I had Brandon attach a clip so that the new recipes (as well as the old ones) would all be in one place and ready to use. As a bonus, we often do our prepping on this part of the counter so we can actually just put the current recipe in the front of the pile and work off it while it hangs from the clip.

So excited to have another organizing project done! Having a routine and a specific place for stuff makes me very happy!