Chalkboard Kitchen Door

It's taken a much longer time than I anticipated to roll up our sleeves and dig into adding our own touches to our home. During the home shopping/buying process I picked out color schemes and pinned furniture and layout options to no end. But now here we are nearly two years into home ownership and the bare bones of our home are largely the same as the day we moved in. I don't mean to downplay what we have done: exterior painting, bathroom painting/hardware, and the complete overhaul of Luke's room. Only noticing our trend, our method. Certainly, the financial cost of renovating is a large factor. But I am realizing that even with an unlimited budget, we're just slow movers in our home decisions. As much as my personality is to 'go-go-go', I also have too many ideas and likes and options and daydreams to really make a decision. Meanwhile, Cody is a fully creative man on his own and has lots of ideas too! We could stay up all night talking about landscaping options for the yards and still have confused direction. There are many promises to just sleep on our ideas and wait to see which ones simmer their way to the top as our front runners. There are many days when I get frustrated with our slow approach. I want the dream house now, please! But that's life. And I remind myself that its taken my parents nearly twenty years to remodel their home, and I'm just barely approaching two. 

And further in my mind wanderings, I wonder how much of my personal style is really my style and how much is dictated by whats available on the clearance rack. Realistically, everyone has a budget and even millionaires can't buy the sun and the stars. But I do wonder. At the same time, there is a constant battle within me between Southwestern Hippie and All-American Preppy, style speaking. So I doubt having a larger budget would really get me too far anyhow. I do believe that taking our time has allowed our house to show us what it needs. And I don't just mean upgrading our shower drain for proper drainage! But to see how we live in it, and how that's changed so much already with little Lukester. 

All of this to say, I finally chalkboard painted. I've admired all the glorious blogs and Pinterest boards full of chalkboard wall and door accents. I finally found the spot that felt perfect for me. It took me a while, a long while. But I've done it. And I love it. And I thought long enough about it, mentally listing all the pros and cons (overkill, I know), to be sure I won't regret it!

It took four coats to get full coverage on our white door. Now I'm just waiting and watching for 24 hours for the curing! Really excited for all the fun things we can write on it: menus, holiday messages, prayer/praise requests, etc. And you can count on Cody for coming up with some off-the wall ideas for it too. So far I think I have convinced him otherwise on journaling his many semi-permanent splinters. We may not have the biggest renovation budget but at least we have our humor, right?!