I’ve always loved the idea of having a chalkboard pantry door, so we decided to tackle it recently. It’s so easy to paint your own chalkboard door, and it’s a really fun project!
For a few weeks now, I’ve been trying to talk Corey into letting me paint one (or, you know, ALL) of our interior doors black. I’ve been in love with the look for a long time, and it’s been all over the place lately. I love the pop of drama and I love how unexpected it is. It’s hard to make something as boring as an interior door look special, so I think that painting it is a fun, low-cost way to achieve something fun and different.
Corey hasn’t been exactly on board with the whole idea, so I had basically given up. Until last weekend when we were at Lowe’s picking up some molding for our pantry door, when I realized that we were going to have to paint the door no matter what – the molding was pure white and our doors are all an ugly off-white, so something was going to have to be done. After a bit of convincing in the trim aisle at Lowe’s, I managed to get Corey to agree that a black pantry door could be fun – but only if I agreed that it would be chalkboard paint. Um, okay, twist my arm why don’t you? A chalkboard door it is!
How to Paint a Chalkboard Door
When we got home with our supplies, we quickly measured out the lines we wanted for the trim on the door – we have plain old builder-grade doors, so we thought that adding some molding would be a fun way to gussy the door up without having to buy an entirely new door. The jury’s still out on whether or not we’ll bring this treatment to any other doors in the house, but we figured the pantry door was a good place to start. We decided on three squares of trim on the door, and Corey taped the lines off so that after I painted, it would be easy to see where we needed the trim to go.
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We planned on painting the entire thing black, including the molding, but we thought it might be easier to paint the door first and then go back and re-paint once we added the molding. So, I brought the door out to the workshop and got to painting.
Have you ever used chalkboard paint before? I hadn’t, and I have to admit I was more than a little baffled when I opened up the can and found some seriously navy blue paint staring back at me.
I checked the label on the can about ten times before I actually let myself believe that this was supposed to be black, and I figured I might as well try it and see what happens. I thought there had been some sort of error at the paint factory and I got blue chalkboard paint instead of the black I wanted – but there’s a ton of navy blue in our dining room, which is adjacent to the kitchen, so I figured it wouldn’t be the end of the world if I ended up with a blue door.
Thankfully, once I got painting the door quickly turned black. I’m still not sure why the paint was so blue, but let me assure you that it will dry black. Strange!
We got both sides of the door painted and let it sit outside for about 24 hours for the paint to fully dry, and then we were ready to add the molding. The only problem was that we had guests coming into town and didn’t have time to add the trim before they got here. So, rather than have a pantry with no door when our guests got here, we figured we could go ahead and re-attach the door sans-molding and take it back off to add the trim and re-paint once they left.
But once we took the tape off the door and got it all hung up, we stepped back and realized that we loved the pop of white that the taped-off squares left. We immediately decided to scrap our plan of re-painting and leave the trim white. I scrawled a quick note on the door to test out the chalkboard function (works like a charm!) and we left the door alone for the weekend.
Once our guests were gone, Corey cut the molding and attached it with some liquid nails, and just like that our pantry door went from plain, boring, and white…to this:
Amazing, right? As you can probably see, there are still a few small areas that we need to touch up, but it’s just about finished! We spent less than $30 on this entire project – about $15 for the paint and maybe $10 for all the trim. Well worth the money, I think!
It’s been fun to write little notes on our door, like a cruise countdown and silly little notes for one another, and I can’t wait to see how we end up using it over time. I also think I just may have convinced Corey that black doors are awesome, so hopefully, I can wrangle one or two more out of him sometime soon!
What’s your stance on black doors? Would you do it? How about chalkboard paint? Anyone else as obsessed as I am?
Jen says
June 28, 2012 at 8:09 amI’m with everyone else… I’m totally seeing a grocery list on the inside of the pantry door. I kind of love this, and actually just sent the link to Craig to see what he thinks. Maybe we’ll be getting out own chalkboard door someday. 😉
Shoshanah says
June 27, 2012 at 9:56 pmThere’s a wall in one of our bedrooms that I’d love to turn into a chalkboard wall. I think it’s such a fun idea. And I’m guessing you’ve probably seen the pinterest pictures, where they use the chalkboard on their pantry to keep a shopping list. I think that door could be perfect for that!
Allie says
June 27, 2012 at 8:19 pmI love how it looks, especially with the white trim! I don’t think I could do chalkboard paint in my own house — the dust would drive me crazy! — but I love how it looks every time I see someone use it!
Lauren says
June 27, 2012 at 1:26 pmLOVE this! I love it for the pantry door because it’s adds the contrast, but is also useful to potentially write down some items that you need to pick up the next time you head to the store.
Sandi says
June 27, 2012 at 10:43 amGreat for writing when you have used the last of something so you can remember to put it on your grocery list. Cute.
Mandy says
June 27, 2012 at 9:51 amI love it!! Mike has been begging for a chalkboard in the kitchen, so maybe we could settle on the pantry door instead?? I think it looks great!
Scraps says
June 27, 2012 at 9:48 amI think a chalkboard pantry door is inspired! Menus, shopping lists, totally practical. And I was thinking, as I read, why not leave the trim white? Great minds and all that 😉
kjpugs says
June 27, 2012 at 8:14 amI love the chalkboard door! If we owned a house (and one with nice doors) I’d love to do glossy black doors or door “lipstick” like you see on design blogs. Such a fun update! And in our kitchen growing up, we had a corkboard wall. I consider my parents to be major advanced since chalkboard is so popular now… it’s a similar concept, kind of… haha!
Victoria says
June 27, 2012 at 7:50 amthis is adorable!! the teacher in me loves the chalkboard paint!