We hosted a birthday party the other night.
I had planned to bake — ok, fine- heat up a frozen — blackberry cobbler, but we kicked our nasty, old, malfunctioning stove to the curb when we had the new flooring installed in the kitchen. And since a new stove isn’t quite in the budget yet, I opted for a store-bought birthday cake instead. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, and boy did our niece and nephew (Lee Ann and Benton) get a good giggle out of everyone’s blue-stained teeth.
The week before the party, I made it my goal to finish up a big project on the right side of the kitchen.
I started by patching the drywall that got damaged when Kevin pulled the beadboard paneling off…
I got some DryDex spackling paste from True Value, and used a putty or “drywall knife” to fill in the damaged parts. I love using DryDex because it goes on pink, and shows you when it’s dry by turning white! After that, I used a medium-grit “Wall Sand” sanding sponge to smooth everything out.
Then, after I vacuumed up 18 lbs. of spackle dust, I broke out a fresh roller head and painted on a wall full of chalkboard black paint…
After that, the cabinets we salvaged from our guest bathroom came back into the room, and the heaviest-butcherblock-countertop-in-the-world (Ikea) got flipped over and stained “Special Walnut“. After that, the chalkboard wall got outfitted with some stainless steel shelves (Ikea).
Later that night, the kids and I had fun breaking it in.
Lee Ann and I drew balloons and birthday banners…
…and Benton taught me all about the wild world of Mario…
(Who knew a “toad” didn’t actually look like a “toad”?)
Nothin’ like bonding, blackboards, and birthday cake.
Ooh- and paper plates and plasticware. I enjoy those a lot, too.
This post is a part of our True Value DIY Blog Squad series!
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Disclaimer: We were selected by True Value to work on the DIY Blog Squad and have been compensated for our time commitment to True Value-related blog posts. We’ve also been given a gift card to purchase the materials needed for our True Value-related projects, however, our opinions are entirely our own and we have not been paid to publish positive reviews. Boom!
Nice work!! Why did you need to flip the counter top to stain it? I want to replicate this look with an ikea counter top=) also, is this is the beech wood not the birch wood?? why was one wood type more preferable to you?? thank You!!
Hey Leigh!
We had to flip it because we used Tung Oil on the other side and it wouldn’t accept stain. I think it’s beech wood, and we just got it because it was the only thing in stock! 😀
Thank you for your reply to my comment! We are getting ours on this Wednesday and I do plan to stain it darker also! They say…..imitation is the sincerest form or flattery! =)
I LOVE THIS! I’m doing this right now in my kitchen/living rooms, looking to replace old tile countertops with wood just like that. Beautiful job, as always!
WOW…that’s really all i can say! Beautiful work.
Do you find that you’d have to clean up the chalk dust all the time?
I love, love, LOVE your chalkboard wall. The future hubs has been wanting an “idea wall” since we bought our house. I have a feeling it’s in our not too distant future. A million thumbs up to your blog and home – they are beautiful!