Pantry Chalkboard

So I have pretty much been obsessed with pantry chalkboards for the last few weeks (thanks to Pinterest!).
Feast your eyes on just some of my inspiration...

The above two pictures are from Pinterest.com

After thumbing (or clicking) through lots and lots of pictures, I finally came up with the perfect plan for our pantry. I knew I wanted to have chalkboard, magnetic board, and cork board on my doors. I started with a trip to Lowes with the hubster to get our "materials". We used 1/4" plywood for the base of our chalkboards. We measured our two pantry doors and the Hubster cut two pieces from the plywood to fit inside of the doors.

Once they were cut, I used Rust-o-leum magnetic paint to paint THREE coats on the plywood. We did not read the instructions before bringing it home, or we would have saved ourselves lots of time (and sore arms, ok ok I am slightly a wuss...) If you buy this paint, DO NOT leave the store without getting them to shake it. This is uber important as all the magnetic properties settle on the bottom and it is a BEAST to get them stirred up by hand. Ok, that being said, I let the magnetic paint dry, then I tested it out. I did three coats to get it as magnetic as I wanted, but you can do more or less, its all about your preference. Once the magnetic paint was dry, I used Valspar chalkboard paint and painted two coats, waiting 24 hours between coats because I am a good girl and listened to what the instructions said. The picture below was taken after the magnetic paint but before the chalkboard paint.

After the magnetic and chalkboard paint, I "primed" the wood. All the blogs and posts I read online about DIY chalkboard said to be sure to do this, so I did (see, again, I am a good girl and follow instructions, hehe). To "prime" it, you simply take the side of a piece of chalk and rub it all over the board. I let it sit for about 20 minutes, then wiped it off with a damp rag.

After "priming" the board, it was time to stencil! You do not have to do this, but I wanted the board mainly to plan meals for the week, so I wanted to stencil some things so they would be permanent. I first used large stencils to put "Menu" across the top and smaller stencils to put the days of the week below that.

Once the paint was dry, the Hubster cut the trim to go around the chalkboard as a nice little border to tie it all together. Here is a close-up of the large stencil.

We then cut cork board to fit in the top of the right side of the door. I decided I needed it to be a little cuter than just plain ole cork board, so I channeled my inner Ballard Designs and created this bad boy...

Once the cork board was covered with nice brown burlap, I used nail heads to give it a more finished look.

I have to insert my adorable little helper here :)

Ok, and now the moment you've all been waiting for...... The Hubster and I very carefully attached 3M hangers to the back of each board. If you don't know what these are, you need to go out and buy some right now. They are amazing little inventions that I use to hang nearly everything in my house! So anyway, back to the pantry doors. Here they are, all finished!!

I really love the way it came out! I love that the black parts are both magnetic and chalkboard. It has allowed us to get all the invitations and pictures off our fridge and neatly tuck them into the pantry. I am SO pleased with this (can you tell!?)