Life with Kids : Magnetic Chalkboard

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Magnetic Chalkboard

Back in January I made a list. On this list were things I wanted to accomplish in 2013. I divided the list into outside projects and inside projects. On the entire list I had 22 things I wanted to complete. We have done like 8. That's okay because we still have some time an if it doesn't get done in 2013 then hopefully it will in 2014.

One of the items on the inside projects list was to turn the pantry doors in our kitchen into a magnetic chalkboard. I chose this because we are hoping to replace our fridge (sometime in the next 20 years) to a stainless option and I guess that they aren't magnetic and i wante a place for E to play with magnets. I have actually been thinking about doing this for a few years but wrote it down in January. I finally got it done last week. (Yes the same week I had three interviews and ran all around my school district begging for a job!!).

I am so pleased with how it turned out and cannot wait for Ellie to get bigger and use this activity station I created for her!

Here is what the pantry doors looked like before:

It was a challenge trying to figure out how to accomplish this task. I didn't want to spend a whole lot of money and use what I already had on hand. You can see that the doors have a grainy wood texture and they are hollow core. I asked at my local hardware store what they would suggest. They mentioned using spackle to fill in the grooves. Then to use magnetic paint as a primer and then paint over with chalkboard paint.

I learned a lot while doing this project. I tried to adhere the spackle while the doors were hung but that didn't work so we removed them and I worked on our back deck. I applied the spackle to one door and then Thomad sanded all the doors for me. Once sanded they all felt the same texture so I did not waste time spackling the other 3 doors.

I had a bit of trial and error with the magnetic paint. I actually bought a can of it back in April and its been sitting in our garage. I got it out last week and shook it up. The directions say to use a paint stirrer to keep it evenly distributed, I didn't have one so I figured my hand shaking was good enough. I painted 2 coats onto one board and it was clear. That was strange. So I found an old piece of wood to stir it up only to find all the magnetic flecks we stuck at the bottom and it was extremely difficult to stir up. I got it good enough to do a single coat on each door. Then I ran out. Back to the hardware store and this time I had them shake it up and give me several paint stir sticks! I also got the chalkboard paint and had them shake that up as well.

Back at home I shook and stirred and painted two more magnetic coats on the doors. This was quick since you could reapply after just 30 minutes!! But the paint was gloppy and didn't go on as smooth as I was hoping. Then it was chalkboard paint time. This was a smoother paint and I was able to apply it evenly. I thought two coats would be good. This took longer even though the painting was smoother because each coat required 24 hours to cure!!