PB Inspiration

Thumbing through the recent PB catalog for the 136th time, I noticed the tray hanging on the wall in this picture. I liked the idea and realized that I had a similar tray (not oval, but round and black with handles). I also noticed the buffet, but I gotta work with what I have, right? :) And that is a shelving unit found at Lowe's that matches my dining set and hutch.

This is what mine looked like:

I had bought it at Target in the 'outdoor summer stuff' section about 3 years ago and it was silver. I spray painted it with a hammered effect paint. Can't recall the brand, but I don't think they're all that different. I had then cut and Mod Podged cut-outs of a calendar that I had and hung it in the kitchen. I liked it for a while and in our last move, I almost sent it to Goodwill in an attempt to lighten the kitchen decor just a tad.

After seeing the PB catalog, I wanted to revamp mine, so yesterday I tried to sand off the cut-outs and paint over them with chalkboard paint. It didn't work so well. The outlines were still visible. Boo. So I took off the paint (it was still wet and washed away nicely) and scrubbed off the cut-outs with Goo-gone, steel wool and some water. (Ever heard the saying "It takes twice as long to do it wrong"?) ;) That process worked great and left me with a clean surface (oddly, the paint was barely scratched!) and I did a light coat of hammered paint over the top.

The best part was that the hammered paint acts like chalkboard paint in this instance! I didn't need to use (more like waste!) anymore chalkboard paint!! It writes smoothly and erases cleanly. YAY!

Now I just have to get it hung in my dining room and rework those shelves...