Drawing On The Wall

It's amazing what a little paint can do to quickly transform a space. This week I slapped a few coats of magnetic primer and chalkboard paint onto a floating wall that divides our kitchen from the living space, a wall we will be tearing down sooner or later.

Here's what it looked like when we bought the place(so clean, and horribly dull). We will be knocking down both this wall and the refrigerator wall to completely open the house. 

Currently, the cheap flat paint on the walls is covered in hand prints and wow, the multiple floor types drive me pretty batty. While this will all go when we remodel in the spring, painting "the great divide" chalkboard black and styling this inexpensive white shelf has created additional storage for frequently used housewares and a space for the kids to draw all over the wall, especially for my preschooler, Wylie, who likes to practice his W's.

To season the chalkboard wall, I first rubbed it with the side of a piece of chalk and then erased in circles with a felt eraser. I wanted it to have that lived-in look right off the bat. For this 10x10 project I used 2 cans of magnetic primer, which is oil based and messy to apply, leaving the walls a flat black. I then gave it a single coat of chalkboard paint which ended up being one can. For under $50 we went from sloppy and dirty to a beautiful, styled mess, something I can live with for the next year.