Cabinet Door Menu Board

Inspired by The Naptime Decorator and The Real Housewives of Idaho's menu boards, I repurposed our extra cabinet door into a chalkboard for our weekly meal planning.

Mike and I have planned our weekly menus for years to help us make our grocery lists and have done so on paper like you see in the photo below.  We plan with lunches in mind to use leftovers as much as possible, which has gotten a little more complicated with a couple more mouths to feed.  : )  We'll still discuss the lunch aspect of our menu plan, but the board will only show the meals that we're actually making (or not making in the case of carry-out, parties, and so on) for dinner. 

Mike removed this cabinet door when we first moved in to make room for our dishwasher (the house didn't have one).  You might recall that we used this door to see how many coats of gel stain we would want on our cabinets. 

I sanded (especially the gel stain lines) and then spray painted the "frame" of the door.  I intended to apply chalkboard vinyl to the inside, but unfortunately the vinyl I had on hand wasn't quite big enough.  Instead I used a Michael's 40% off coupon on some Martha Stewart chalkboard paint.  (In the future I might try  Liz@Naptime Decorator's tip of mixing one part paint with two parts of Plaster of Paris to make my own.  She uses it for all furniture makeovers, she likes it so much. You have to apply a wipe-off wax afterwards for regular furniture.)

I'm not sure why I bothered with the painter's tape.  It usually just pisses me off, and this time was no exception.  I'm sure I could do more to prevent the bleeding and peeling of paint, but I think I should just be careful with the edges to begin with.  I'll have to touch up a little either way.

The letters are Thickers that I found at Hobby Lobby.  They reminded me of the long, skinny letters on a local elementary school (very mid-century) with the addition of some clunky serifs.  I've fantasized about stealing some letters off the school to make a sign with my own name.  Yes, I do lust after a typeface.

Here's the sign adorned with the glorious handwriting that 10+ years as a teacher has produced.  Yep, it looks the same as it did in third grade.  Hopefully it's endearing to my poor students.  :P  While we wrap up the kitchen fix-up, you can see our menus tend to be pretty carry-out heavy.  Mmm, Buddy's tonight!

Stay tuned for the full kitchen reveal, with this menu board and other details in place, which should be in the next week or so.

Update: Did I seriously think it would only be a week or so at that point?  Boy, oh boy.  When will I learn?  :)