DIY Kitchen Pantry Doors. CHALK it up to Childhood.

Do you ever wish you had a chalkboard eraser for your brain?

I do.  Then I would erase all of my awkward childhood memories.

The embarrassing ones.  The ones where I visited the principals office.  The ones where I visited the police station.  Yup, my parents took me to the office of the police chief  for stealing lip gloss when I was 9.

That was the last CRIME I committed.

I think I may need more than a chalkboard eraser to erase some of those funky memories. I may need a shovel.  Or a dump truck.  Or a backhoe.  This could take some time.

Back to chalkboards.

 Chalkboard paint and doors.  What a delicious mix.

My awesome friends Jill and Matt created this for their kitchen pantry :

There are many recipes on line for making your own DIY chalkboard paint.

  * You can also just buy it *

For this DIY project , you will save sooo much moola on the doors and track hardware, you will have some coin left over to buy the paint.   Or a new pair of shoes.

Whichever comes first.

 That would be my choice….the shoes….and buying the paint.   I don’t have time to brush my hair some days, so the thought of mixing up chalkboard paint makes me a bit weak in the knees.  I would rather mix a margarita.  Or mix and match my socks.  Anything.

Photo via www.4men1lady.com

The one thing I confidently know about chalkboards is how to write lines on them.

Writing lines on chalkboards = childhood for old farts like me.

Photo via www.houseandhome.com

I went to Catholic School.   I had NUNS as teachers.  Send me a sympathy card.  STAT.

I can still hear it now…from my teacher *cough* NUN, Sister Mary Ellen :

Sister Mary Ellen :

“LYNNE ! Up to the chalkboard you go.  You must write out 100 times….”

” I will not steal my teachers rubber bands to make jumpsies “

I had no idea what she was talking about.  I only borrowed her rubber bands.  And then knotted tons of them together to make a jumpsie rope.  She could have stayed up all night and un-knotted them if she really wanted them back.  Seriously, where was she going to go on a Friday night?  Pub crawl?

For those of you who now think I am ancient…and you have no idea what a rubber band jumpsie rope is…..

This is how it worked :

We joined about a billion rubber bands together to make a long elastic line.  Then you went in search of two suckers friends who were willing to hold on to each end of the elastic line.  You jump over the elastic bliss a million ways to Tuesday.  For hours on end.  Until some stupid nice teacher called you in from recess.  I think Sister Mary Ellen could have worked on recognizing our way of avoiding class team sportsmanship.  Three young ladies working together.  Brilliance.  Or at least two young ladies, and a willing tree.

We were creative thinkers.  I think Jill would have fit like a glove in our girlzz childhood clan.  Look what she has just sitting around so beautifully in her house.  She is one creative gal !

Jill's knitting basket & iPhone charger ! I love this gal !

We also figured how to put a rubber ball in one leg of pantyhose.  Do you remember those?  We bounced the one legged pantyhosed ball against a wall in a figure eight pattern.  BLISS.  My Mom had one legged pantyhose for years.  I have no idea how that happened.  The way I look at it now, is that I rescued her from having to wear pantyhose.

Panty hose are cruel itchy torture.

Since Sister Mary Ellen didn’t have any extra pantyhose in her desk drawer, we had to think outside the box.  Rubber bands to the rescue. We could connect lines of rubber bands from here to there to China.  The chair was connected to the table…. which was connected to door handle…which was connected to Sister Mary Ellen’s desk…..which was connected….. all the way to the principals office.

Sometimes we got caught.

We took turns at ‘taking one for the team’.  Writing lines on a chalkboard became a way of life.

This may explain why I buy my chalkboard paint.  I need to get some nice feeling mojo back into my chalkboard experiences.

I have seen chalkboard paint used in many applications.  Some I like.  Some make me feel a bit uptight.  Yup, uptight.  Gee, I wonder why?

CHALKBOARD PAINT IDEAS :

1)  Large chalkboards built into thick funky frames and leaning up against a wall.

2)  Paint a child’s picnic table in chalkboard paint.  Kids LOVE it.

3)  Paint one wall in a creative office space.  Funky and sexy.

4)  Paint plain flat doors with chalkboard paint.  Mount on a track.  Voila. Kitchen Pantry doors.  Deliciously beautiful.  Simple.  Inexpensive alternative.

A peak-a-boo hideaway for all your kitchen 'stuff'

  I was so excited when I saw my friends idea in their kitchen…… I almost kissed them.

Actually, I think I did.  Jilly Bean has been a long time friend of mine, and her husband Matt is one of the most incredible builders ever known to mankind.   They created these pantry doors as a DIY project.  That guy Matt knows how to think ‘outside the builder’s box.’  He thinks green.  He thinks smart.  He knows how to do a project that not only saves money, but is creatively brilliant.  And he is cute.  Just sayin’.

DOOR TRACK HARDWARE :

Have you priced the hardware for a sliding door?  Track hardware can set you back.  Hundreds of dollars.  You may need to give up your first born child to pay for it.  Or sell all your worldly possessions. The super cool thaaang that Jill and Matt did was buy the hardware for these doors at farm supply store.  These are standard tracks that are used to hang barn doors.

How cool is that?

STYLE OF DOOR FOR THIS PROJECT :

They also bought standard hollow doors.  You know the kind.  The kind that are not all that and a bag of chips.  Inexpensive.  Flat.  Boring.  Until the magic of chalkboard paint and a track hardware hits them.  BAM.

These doors hide an entire kitchen pantry.  You can chalk it full of your goods, small kitchen appliances, drawers and crown jewels.  Shhhh.

Jill and Matt have a boat load of kids too.  Jill told me that the chalk dust is not an issue at all.  She barely ever notices it.  I promise, Jill never lies.  She might lie about their family whereabouts now that I have shown the inside of their kitchen and confessed that her husband is cute.

And the end of the day, this is one of my all time favourite ideas.  I love it when that happens.

Now you know why I kissed them.