Chalkboard Door

Having something in the kitchen for starting shopping lists and notes can be very useful. With the new kitchen we didn’t want to find wall space to hang up a white board so instead we turned the pantry door into a chalkboard.  The process was pretty simple. We bought a primed door and a quart of Rustolium’s chalkboard paint. The directions say that a roller will give the best finish, but with my small areas I opted for a soft synthetic brush.

I painted the white outside of the door and the center with the chalkboard paint. I found that it took two coats of chalkboard paint to get a nice finish. I then masked off the black and put a blue frame on the chalkboard.

Christopher made sure that the top and bottom panels worked and had a little fun in the process.

PS Kid Zone is an invite to our niece and nephew.

Walk in Pantry

When we first looked at out old farmhouse it was apparent that storage space was at a premium. The kitchen was no exception.  For a pantry we had two shallow cabinets stacked and bolted to a wall by the half bathroom. The dream has always been to build a small walk in pantry in the kitchen. With the extensive kitchen remodel that we have done it was the perfect opportunity; and with the refrigerator moved out of the corner we had the perfect spot.

Christopher did all of the framing and tile work on the new pantry. With out 9′ ceilings the drywall was a joint effort. The shelves have all been tracked to add future flexibility as the requirements of the space might change.

We also went for the deepest stock shelves that would work in the space to maximize storage; really by walk in we mean that there is a small area to stand inside the door.

We still have a little finish work to take care of as far as floor trim, door trim; and painting the door. Once the door is finished it will have a chalkboard interior to write down menu options and shopping lists. That will have to wait for another project update when we move into the final details phase.

Kitchen – Reconstruction and Electrical

The kitchen turned a corner when the subfloor that the reconstruction phase was at hand.

The kitchen has always missed a real pantry. There were some stacked cabinets that used to be in a stub hallway leading to the old half bath. They did a decent jub, but they were really shallow. The new pantry will be a partial walk in with lots of storage. Currently it is framed and ready to start construction.

The kitchen electrical has been waiting for the pantry framing since the pantry was to be the first stop on the circuit. The can lights have now been rewired into a new switch in the can light ledge right above where I work most of the time. The kitchen sink light has a new outlet and the fridge outlet is now powered as well. One more cabinet had to come down for the electrical, so thw full spare bedroom got more kitchen items.

The electrical is now almost complete and then the drywall will start going back up. Our hope is to have the kitchen down to details before the end of the year; stay tuned for the updates.