Chalk it up to perfect imperfection!

I'm sure many of you are familiar with Restyled Home - a blog full of inspirational photos for the home obsessed like me. As if she didn't have enough eye candy, Linda recently posted a challenge to her readers to share their 'perfectly imperfect' corners of our home. Isn't that a great idea? Well, many of her readers agreed and shared their own stories.

Well here is my addition to the fray. Its the magnetic/chalkboard message center I added on the inside of my pantry door. Not quite as impressive as many of the projects I posted as inspiration but I'm happy with it.

Here is the door on Friday afternoon (aka: Before)

and here it is last night


A bit time consuming but very straightforward. I used 5 coats of the metallic primer to get it strong enough to hold a magnet well. I could have probably used another few coats but I was sick of priming after 5 and it was strong enough. I let that dry/cure for a day.

Then I added three coats of the black chalkboard paint and let that dry a few hours.

If you look closely, you can see the little embellishment I added using a stencil at the top and bottom.

I wanted to do a tone on tone damask pattern but despite visiting 3 different craft shops, I couldn't find a damask stencil. So I used a scrolly one instead.

I waited for the chalkboard paint to be dry to the touch and then mixed in a bit of pearl paint with the chalkboard paint and used the stencil on top and bottom.

And despite my best efforts with carefully placing down the blue tape and pressing hard - it still bleed thru a bit so I need to back and touch up the areas on the trim that have black blotchy spots. So its not perfect but it should do the trick.

I need to let it cure for a few days before I write on it but I'm very happy I got something started and finished all in the same weekend. I know, I know - hardly a big deal as this was a very small project but let me have my small victories :)