Monday, March 26, 2012

Chalkboard Fridge & Kitchen Ceiling Progress

NOTE: Before I begin this post I want to say that my ding dong camera card went "sasldfkj" this afternoon so any before or even during pictures of the fridge chalking are temporarily *poof* gone! As soon as Conan works a little magic of his own though, I will put some more pictures of the process up here.
Okay. Now you may proceed.

Okay so, is the suspense killing you? A chalkboard fridge, you say? But how can that be? Well, let me show/tell you...

First, you take a normal, very beige fridge (that we didn't buy-it came with the house)


(that's where I would normally put this awesome, face-on picture of the fridge but...whadaya' gonna' do?)

Then you follow this tutorial you found on Apartment Therapy

(insert more awesome during pictures)

Sand the fridge a little

Buy some chalkboard paint (ON SALE for $8)

Brush/roll it on (I did a little of both)

Let it dry for three days, rub chalk all over it and wipe off

And.....


Ta-dow!

Pretty neat, huh? We really like how it turned out! I especially like the way it looks with my thrift store dresser there.


Look at that adorable cow! It's no surprise that one of us has a degree in art, now is it?

It was such a cheap and easy project, I would highly recommend it!


UPDATE: Two years later, here's how the chalkboard fridge DIY has held up!


In other news,
the kitchen ceiling now has one coat of paint! Hooray!



Looks pretty awesome! Especially since my mom and dad came this past weekend and put that big, fat trim over the place where the old wallpaper was still peeking out at the top of the paneling.



We're going to try to spray on our second coat since we did the first by hand and it was...ugh!
Wish us luck!


31 comments:

  1. I love that you went with green instead of black. For some reason green chalkboards just seem more authentic to me. So lovely. There is a chalkboard in the farmhouse kitchen of my future in-laws house and it is always a huge hit with the kids at family gatherings. I'm sure your fridge will make for great memories, as well :)

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  2. Aw, thanks Alyssa! I feel the same way about green vs. black chalkboards. There's just something about them... P.S. Your future in-laws kitchen sounds uh-may-zing!

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  3. This is super cool. I'm going to chalkboard-paint all of my appliances now!

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  4. Good luck, Rick! We sure do love our fridge this way!

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  5. Love the chalkboard fridge. You have some very neat ideas. Also agree about the green vs. black. :)

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  6. Thanks Black Dog! We try our bet but they aren't all this well executed. I don't put those on the blog though ; )

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  7. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this (love love love that you choose green!) I guess you could even do this to an ugly dishwasher door. Love your floors too. I wish I could dream up some cool idea like this! Talk about saving some money too!

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  8. Thanks Michelle! Green seems to be the most popular color (at least around these parts)! And yeah, I saw some other people 'round the web talking about doing this to other appliances. It's a cheap and easy wasy to change the look of something entirely : )

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  9. I seriously want to do this. The hubby just has one question first. Do magnets still work once the fridge is painted? Thanks for the great idea

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  10. Thanks for stopping by Amy! Yes, magnets still work once it's painted we just don't have any on there in that picture cuz we wanted it to look all "magazine fancy".

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  11. I love it! there will be a chalkboard in the kitchen of my future, I don't know where exactly, but it will happen.

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    1. We have a little chalkboard in the hallway between the kitchen and the living room that was thisclose to being in the kitchen. Don't know why but kitchens just = chalkboards to me!

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  12. I love what you have done to your kitchen ceiling! We own a 112-year-old house in Oklahoma and are in the process of bringing it back to life. We also removed the ceiling in our kitchen, because it had been damaged by a water leak. We decided, like you, not to sheetrock the ceiling but to leave it exposed. I'm so excited to see your posts showing the white painted ceiling. We haven't painted our ceiling yet, but it is on our very long to-do list of projects.

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    1. Thanks so much, neighbor to the south! 112 years? Now that's an old house! We have really liked leaving the beams exposed and painted because it makes the room seem taller and hey, sheetrocking above your head is no picnic : ) Good luck with your projects!

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  13. Found your picture on pinterest. I love this idea. I'd love to see the finished project from the same angle as the 'before.' I bet it makes that space really pop! Thanks for sharing.

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    1. Yeah, standing here looking at it now it definitely makes that corner much more inviting; although, I now realize how much I need to do something about the laundry room at the back of the house--it looks pretty much the same as it does in the "before" picture. :(

      There's a couple of pictures in the David Bazan Living Room Show post in which you can see the fridge; his daughter occupied herself by drawing on it.

      http://keepsmilinghome.blogspot.com/2012/06/bazan-living-room-show.html

      Actually, there's a been a few decorating changes in the kitchen since we took those photos, and there's likely to be a few more sometime soonish, so we'll have to post an update for those.

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    2. Yes, definitely do! (She looks incredibly bored laying on the floor petting the cat; so cute!). Thanks, Cody!

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    3. Yeah, she started off watching a movie on David Bazan's iPhone, but she got tired of that pretty quickly, and I was standing where I could see her eyeing our refrigerator so I said, "Hey, do you like to draw?" and handed her a piece of chalk. Amazingly, like all children, she did like to draw, and she's actually pretty expressive for someone of her age; we still haven't erased her snake drawing. But when I saw her petting our cat I was a little concerned, 'cause Maggie is sort of known for explosive and vicious attacks, especially directed at anyone foolish enough to start rubbing her soft and inviting belly. Fortunately, I think Maggie was happy to have another young lady around to interact with.

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    4. That's really funny. My mother-in-law's cat always attacks my son--cats can be so mean ;) The cat actually gets jealous when grandma is giving too much attention to Eden, and Eden gets jealous of the cat. It's pretty hilarious!

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    5. Oh cats, why do we put up with them?

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  14. I usually use a piece of paper to remind about what I should not eat. But, I like the idea. It is easy to clean up. I put many magnetic accessories on refrigerators. They are cool. I like to superheros..

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    1. Yeah, the only thing I can say is a bit of a drawback on the chalkboard fridge is that you do get a little dust from writing on it with chalk, but it's not a huge amount unless you're really working on a masterpiece, otherwise it's very handy and of course you can still use all the magnets you like.

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  15. It really looks GREAT! Did you just apply the paint over the fridge or did you sand it first?

    Thanks for sharing
    Beatriz

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    1. Thanks! I just lightly sanded it with whatever sandpaper I had lying around then I wiped it off and started applying the chalkboard paint.

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  16. This is such an incredibly cool idea!! Who would have thought that you could do this over a fridge and for how simple a project it is....OUTSTANDING idea here!! PS love the green!! Thanks for posting my fello artistic friend

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    1. Thank you! And yes, I wouldn't have believed it either if I hadn't done it myself but it really is THAT simple and it still looks great!

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  17. Wow - thanks for sharing. I love the green chalkboard - I wish I had seen your post before I did mine...although I'm still happy.
    See my fridge here : http://www.paperbarkplace.com/project/upcycled-fridge-in-3-simple-steps/

    Dee from PaperbarkPlace.com

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    1. Aw, yours looks great Dee! Ours is still going strong and we love it : )

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  20. Love this! Just out of curiosity, what do you store in the cabinet next to the fridge?

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