diy chalkboard

I've been dying to make my own chalkboard for a while and since we purchased our house I had the perfect spot in mind - the side of our "pantry" in our kitchen (this area used to be where the wall hung oven lived pre-renovation. I'll be sure to post before and after pictures here when we're completely finished). As you can see, it was looking a little rough with that split down the middle where two pieces of wood came together:

   

don't mind the door-less cabinets (in process)

We thought a large chalkboard on the side of this cabinet would be perfect for a number of reasons:

1] it would cover the ugly crack 

2] it would make a bold statement on the side of the cabinet 

3] and it would give us something fun to write on - we like doodling, who doesn't?

So we did a little research. I found recipes for DIY chalkboard paint, which was right up my alley. Since I work for a tile distributor, I purchased a small bag of unsanded grout and started making big plans. Adam was skeptical of the homemade chalkboard paint and suggested that black would be a nice contract with everything else in the kitchen anyway (it really does look good with our stainless appliances since they have black accents). Because of this, I scrapped the DIY chalkboard paint idea and opted for getting store bought black chalkboard paint. I do plan to use my own chalkboard paint on future projects...so stayed tuned.

Not only did I buy chalkboard paint...I picked up a can of magnetic primer to go with it: