Wooden Kitchen Letters and Refinishing a Chalkboard

October 25, 2012 | by Jocie (email) |

Eat, Pray, Love…Or Just EAT! I never read the book or saw the movie, but it is a cute saying. But in my kitchen, I simplified it to just eating. I do pray before I eat and I do love to eat, so really EAT sums it up! lol.

As my efforts to redesign my kitchen moved forward, I bought wooden letters at Joann’s 50% off to spell eat. Then I bought a really roughed up chalkboard for a dollar at a yard sale….and then I got to work!

The wooden letters were meant to be the simplest project for the kitchen. Buy the letters. Paint the letters. Hang the letters. Easiest project and post ever!

But you know me… I like to complicate things.

I originally painted the letters yellow and hung them over the door frame from our kitchen into our dining room. While it matches and was pretty, it didn’t sit well with me. Maybe too much yellow. Maybe not the right placement. So, I changed it up.

Down the letters came and were promptly painted white, or rather the color of the walls, which is not entirely white.

I then went in search of yellow and gray scrapbook paper. Let me tell you, that was easier said than done. I went to three different stores and what I settled on was not ideal but better than the rest of the very limited options, which were more geared towards baby.

Once I had the paper in hand, I used my handy dandy x-acto self-healing mat and blade to cut the paper with the blade, tracing around each letter. (I had to go through two rounds of this because hot tea got spilled on the first batch) This is the same technique I used to make wooden owls.

Then I ModPodged the paper to the wooden letter, using my homemade ModPodge (has saved me the most money of any of my crafts!)

Finally, I hung it back on the wall, a different wall, with my 3M Command strips. <3

I bet the suspense is killing you, but I hung the EAT right over my new favorite kitchen project – the chalkboard!

Here’s the hideous before.

The chalkboard itself was really scratched up but the wood was in great shape, just incredibly dirty.

Even before I cleaned it up, I used very fine sandpaper on the chalkboard until the scratches were gone.

Then I wiped the whole thing down with a wet paper towel and then used the leftover Rustoleum De-glosser from my sister’s Cabinet Transformation to prep the wood frame.

I then taped off the frame with Scotch Blue and sprayed several thin coats of Chalkboard paint, the spray paint form. Super easy!

Once it was dry (at least over night), I taped the edges of the chalkboard and painted the frame the color of the walls.

After the paint was dry, I added scrapbook paper to the back of the underside compartment. It still felt a little lacking, so I added some fabric rosette flowers.

Ethan then hung it on the wall using anchors so it doesn’t fall on one of the kids.

Oh, then I free-handed some chalk art, subway style.  Yay! Cutest part of the kitchen!

What do you think? Which EAT do you like best?

As Always, thanks for reading!

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