That’s what I had stuck in my head the whole time I was working on my latest project. It will all make since is just a moment. But first, you may have noticed how dirty the door to my garage was in this recent post.
Filthy, I know. That’s the perils of living with car-guy. All those finger prints from walking in and out of the house while working on a motor in the garage. I’ve even found some on the back of the upper part of that door frame that I just painted. Sometimes I think husbands just try to put dirt in strange places that aren’t cleaned; like they’re marking their territory. In any case, I haven’t been able to get those fingerprints off the door, even after scrubbing with the Mean Green, and to be honest, it probably wouldn’t do any good. More finger prints would appear soon after. So I wanted something that would work better for us; white obviously wasn’t the answer.
Right now, Husband has a piece of paper held on the door with a magnet that he rights notes on, and this gave me an idea. What if I turned the whole door into a giant chalk board?! The black paint would hide all those greasy finger prints, and the chalk board would be functional for Husband’s notes – and any other notes people might want to leave.
So I went to Home Depot, and picked up a quart of chalk board paint, and two super-smooth rollers, one for me and one for Son. It ran me about 22 bucks.
I taped off the door trim, and since Son would be helping, I put paper down on the floor.
You will also notice that the doorknob is missing. Let me tell you how that went down.
I had seen online that you could use tin foil to mask off things like hardware; it’s moldable. It seemed like a great idea, but I couldn’t get it to work. I frowned at Son, and he said “Why not just take off the doorknob?” Talk about “Out of the mouth of babes!” So I found a screwdriver, and removed it.
It took about an hour and a half to two hours, and I was done. Once the paint was good and dry, another 2 hours, I coloured the whole door with a piece of chalk, and erased it. This is part of the finishing process, according to the instructions. Then it was ready for noting-up.
We all really like it. Although it will take some getting used to. We keep thinking the door was left open. And I have tons of paint left over; who knows what I will turn into a chalk board next. Maybe my pantry door? That could be handy. Or the front door; I could put welcome notes on it. Maybe that’s a bit drastic. And Son did a pretty good job painting, though he did get outside of the tape in one spot. Can you spot it?
How about now? Oh well. I’ll just repaint the trim now, it’s not that big of a deal. Heck, maybe I’ll do an entire laundry room make-over. We’ll see.
Have you had the guts to paint something black in your house? Ever done anything so uber-functional, yet stylish?
Gettin' By 
Cool idea! And yes, I’d love to read and see all about your laundry room makeover!