The one thing that I really dislike about our house is it's lack of a mud room. I wish that there was a place to put all of the forms that come home from school and where we could have a family calendar and grocery lists, but where they would not be seen by every guest coming into our house.
Our kitchen pantry is set back in a tiny hall through a doorway off of our kitchen. Tiny is an understatement...the space is only 50 inches wide x 40 inches deep. The kitchen pantry is to the right and to the left was a blank wall. (On a side note- the other side of the door that you see in this picture is our laundry room/ hallway to the garage.)
The previous owners of our house had hung a coat rack very low on the wall to the left of the pantry hallway. It was a great height for kids to hang their coats, and for me to hang my purse, but otherwise it was really kind of useless. That being said, we didn't do anything about changing the pantry hallway until the coat rack fell (probably because my purse was too heavy, but I will never admit that to Mike!) .
Once the rack fell, I needed to decide if I wanted to continue to leave that hallway as a waste of space or try to find a way to utilize it better. I'm not one to waste space- I like to actually USE every room that we have instead of leaving dedicated spaces that get used once or twice a year.
I started by filling the holes in the wall that were left by the falling coat rack and some other random nail holes that were in the wall.
I apologize for the poor quality pictures, but let's remember that this space is only 50 inches wide. I was literally standing in my pantry as I took this shot!
As you can see, I outlined the wall with painters tape. I knew that I wanted to paint the wall with Magnetic Primer so that I could move all of Emma's pictures and school notices off of the refrigerator and onto my new "Command Center". I still had some left over from a previous project so I only needed to purchase one small can of Rustoleum Magnetic Primer at Home Depot for $20.99.
Here's my advice for Magnetic Primer... do thin coats, but do a lot of them. I used 5 coats of the Rustoleum Magnetic Primer for my wall. I also recommend testing the magnetic-ness of the primer once its dry with the magnets that you plan to use to be sure that it is strong enough.
After the Magnetic Primer was thoroughly dry ( at least 24 hours), I coated the wall with 4 coats of Rustoleum Chalkboard Paint in Black. which I also got at HD for $24.99.
Again- Sorry for the not so great pics, but it has to be the most difficult thing in the house to photograph.
I am using the top of the wall to hold all of those random things that usually wind up on the fridge doors- like Emma's artwork and my measurement conversion magnet. Seriously, who wants to convert ounces to cups in their head- its just way too much work.
I have a row of days of the week magnets so that I can see at a glance what is going on that week. Otherwise, I inevitably remember that Emma has ballet lessons 10 minutes before we are supposed to be there. There's also a generous amount of space for a grocery list.
The entire bottom of the wall belongs to Emma. She already knows where in our miscellaneous kitchen drawer the chalk and eraser are kept and feels free to help herself. Its a great way to keep her occupied while I am trying to cook dinner.
I have to say- out of all of the improvements that we have made in the house lately- this is one of my favorites. It's been finished almost a week and has already been a big help.
Up next...the new vegetable garden!
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