The plan is to eventually paint the kitchen island black and the other cabinets white.  (It sounds strange, but I’ve seen other kitchens with dark islands/light cabinets and loved it.)  I think it’s best to replace our counters before painting, but I wanted to have a little fun while I waited for “someday”.  Here’s the island before:

(No surprise that our 23 pound cat is eating again.)

I primed the back first with Zinsser’s Cover Stain Primer, which doesn’t require sanding of glossy surfaces.  I swear, I can almost hear angels sing when I get out of sanding something.  Then I layered on a gray primer, just because I already had it and figured it couldn’t hurt when going to such a dark color.  (Phone pic here, sorry.)

After three coats of chalkboard paint, and then patiently waiting three days as per the paint can’s directions, I rubbed a piece of chalk all over the paint, then “erased” it to give the entire thing a little coat of chalk dust.  This looks so wrong at first, messing up that perfect black finish.

I do think we’re going to have a lot of fun with this.  I imagine it as a place to leave messages that we can’t miss, since we usually enter through the garage into the kitchen.  Or a new way to decorate for the holidays or express ourselves for important events or just everyday life.  It’s a part of the house that is capable of changing any time we feel the urge.

When I tried to think of a few words it might want to start off with, all I had was:

Bonus points if you understand.  :)