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Magnetic Paint Fail

Three things for your Monday morning.  One…90s music is SOOOOOO much better than today’s new hits.  I mean c’mon…90s Britney vs today’s Britney?  Or Katy Perry vs the Spice Girls?  No contest.  Two…winter needs to be over with a capital “O”.  But alas…we’re still stuck in single digits and below.  And three…magnetic wall paint is AWFUL!  These three things are obviously my opinions, so feel free to disagree.  Actually, I welcome disagreement.  Anyone up for arguing Pearl Jam vs Imagine Dragons?  I’m game.  But that last point…about magnetic wall paint…let’s discuss my recent experiences…when we put in a combo magnet/chalkboard wall in our kitchen:

In case you’re just joining us (welcome), we recently built in our refrigerator and installed a pull-out baking pantry, leaving this side of the refrigerator’s built-in wall blank.  Perfect spot for a combo magnetic wall/chalkboard wall.  I dreamed of the combo since I’m THAT person who refuses to hang anything on her beautiful as is stainless steel refrigerator.  I did hang Christmas cards there this winter but was sweating bullets the entire time dreading the thought of the refrigerator getting scratched with those heavy-duty magnets.  So when I came across the Rustoleum magnetic wall paint I was sold!  Magnet wall here I come (or so I thought…foreshadowing say what?!).

In retrospect, I probably should have read some reviews or did a little research about magnetic paint but I was jumping in full force.  Hindsight is 20/20 right?!  So what was so awful with the paint?!  One…it didn’t work as I wanted it to.  After four coats of just magnetic paint a heavy-duty magnet barely stayed on the wall.  No way would it ever hold something to the wall.  Two…oh the stink-age!!!  I kid you not I thought I was going to die while painting that wall.  My running commentary during the project went something like this, “Colby…I’m dying!  The smell…it’s so bad…I feel faint!  THUNK!  I’m dead now!  Babe…come here and Snow White me and bring me back to life.”  And three…it’s not the easiest paint to work with.  Enter photo exhibit A:

See that chunk?  That’s a magnetic parts chunk.  I couldn’t stir the stuff in the can since it was not only full to the brim but literally a solid chunk of metal at the bottom of the can.  So I dumped it in a paint tray and stirred…FORRRREEEVVVVVVER!  It took alot of stirring to even out the consistency and get the paint to a point where I could whip out my mini foam roller and start rolling it on the wall.  Needless to say, in the end I not only scrapped the magnet wall project but also my paint tray and mini roller (foam part, handle and all) since the stuff also stuck to everything and didn’t play clean up nicely.

Moving onward to my trusty ol’ chalkboard paint (who saved the day by the way):

I love that stuff.  I’ve used it on a couple of mini chalkboard projects in the past and still had half of a can left so I could take our refrigerator’s built-in side from drab:

To slightly more fab after painting and adding a bit of trim around the edge for a more finished look.  Ignore the beam progress.  We’ve got about 8,000 kitchen projects going on simultaneously.

And boom….finished, trimmed out chalkboard wall in the kitchen.  I didn’t get any good “in progress” shots of the process since I was too busy cursing the day that magnetic wall paint was invented.  But all I did was use a mini foam roller to roll on two thin and even coats of chalkboard paint right over the black magnetic wall paint.

Here’s the wall from another angle….along with a finished beam…but more on that another day.

The last step in the chalkboard wall project was seasoning the wall.  I have to admit, I’ve never done this before with other chalkboard projects but I’ve heard through the grapevine blogosphere that it’s helpful.  All it takes to season your board is smearing chalk all over the board.

I may have gone a little overboard…note the dust buster on the floor.

And wipe the whole thing down.

And from there, feel free to chalk away!  I just slapped up a quick “Welcome to our beautiful mess” free-hand message.  It seemed appropriate at the time since most weekends we spend it destroying our house via projects and then spend the rest of the week putting it all back together again.  It’s like we live in a Humpty Dumpty house.  But I envision switching up the message seasonally or whenever I feel like it.  Maybe even make it fancier.

Oh…and this was Colby’s contribution to the chalkboard wall art:

Goose’s food and water dishes sit right in front of the wall so it seemed appropriate to add what’s on Goose’s menu…a consistent helping of “foods”.  I don’t know what I’m more concerned about….that we have horrible grammar when talking to our dog (ie…”Goose, we got you new foods” or “Goose, you want some lunch-es-essss” or my personal favorite “Goose, let’s go do some business-essss”) or that we talk to our dog on a regular basis and sometimes think he understands us.

Pssst…I’m curious, has anyone else ever played around with magnetic wall paint?  Did you have a better experience than I did?  Did I just do something wrong?!

Comments

  1. A big ball of metal? What??? I bought a magnetic chalkboard kit about a year ago and it is still tucked away in the back of my craft armoire. I lost interest in doing the project I originally bought it for. Now I’m glad I never tried it.

    Well, your finished wall looks great, Angie, despite the rocky start. Your kitchen is really coming along. And how great is it that Goose has his own message board!

  2. I’ve read that the magnetic paint is a pain, so I haven’t tried it.I like how your chalkboard turned out though. If you’d still like a magnet area, maybe hang a cookie sheet on the wooden wall. It would be cute with your baking center.

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Angie's Roost Campbell Family in front of home in 2021

Hi there! We're the Campbells. We traded in Maine city living for the country life in Vermont. You'll find us here fixing up a circa 1781 historic home, growing our own food, and filling this home with the memories and things that matter. Read more about us...

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