Welcome to my kitchen. You might remember we built about 18 months ago… darn that we weren’t blogging back then. It would have been fun to come to all of you for design ideas. Although, after 5 homeless months I was sort of like whatever, just finish the house!
Well my kitchen was “fine”… and remember, when I say fine I tend to mean take it or leave it. It was just lacking anything cool. We do have a fun chalkboard backsplash, but the fun ended there.
Last week, we were sitting in our breakfast room, eating dinner (why is it called a breakfast room?) and I was looking out into the kitchen and not thrilled with the view…
This plain wall was screaming at me to do something! I love the barn sale chalkboard, but the wall was blah!
I looked to Eric and said, “Mind if I do an itty bitty project tonight when the kids are in bed?” To which I think he said something like, “Oh boy…” I quickly cleaned up from dinner, grabbed my oldest daughter and ran to Lowes. I needed black paint STAT! (Sidenote: it took the guy at Lowes 40 minutes to mix my black paint. Not exaggerating. I was the only one in line, but it was a hot mess. It sorta deflated my “we’re on a mission” mindset, but oh well, I pressed on!)
I got home and started gathering supplies… tape: check, paint: check roller: check chalk line… UGH! It got mixed up with Nate Berkus’ supplies and it was sitting in NYC. This was almost a deal breaker… I got a little cranky, and then decided to stop being sad and start being awesome!
That’s right… I had chalk and string, so I just sucked up the royal mess and made a chalk line!
Eric was really, really happy about that decision. He loved that it looked like a blue snowstorm in our kitchen! (hehe)
Before snapping lines came the math. Boo math! Lucky for me, not only is the hubs handy, he’s also super smart! I told him what I wanted and he handed me this nice, little cheat sheet of measurements.
Pharmacokineticist by day… DIY Mathematician by night. SCORE one for me!
We chalked our nicely spaced and pre-measured grid lines
And then I got taping. I will be honest here… taping chevron wasn’t my favorite thing ever. Getting the points right isn’t hard, just annoying. I used an X-acto knife to get them crisp.
Then I painted. Then I asked Eric to paint the top because I wasn’t tall enough. I think I heard him say something like, “How did I know this was going to become an us project?” I think I might have then suggested he change out of his grubby, outdated work jeans, and into something more blog-friendly… yeah, that didn’t happen. It was worth a shot!
All painted!
We used our perfect stripe method and had no bleeding lines! SWEET! But, we did have some paint pulled off by the tape, not sure why, but I touched up any imperfections.
I just went back the next morning and did some reverse taping so I could touch up.
There she is… I couldn’t love it any more than I do! Well, actually that’s a lie. I’m also going to do the wall to the left of it. I wanted to be sure I liked it first. Once both walls are done I’ll be fully smitten!
This is my not-so-boring kitchen now. I know chevron (especially in black) isn’t for everyone, but I think it’s just right for us!
I finally erased my month-old birthday message and added this to my chalkboard…
A Beautiful Mess is one of my favorite blogs and also describes this family of six pretty well. If you haven’t checked out Elsie’s blog you should, but I’ll warn you. It’s a love-hate thing for me. She is so adorable, so creative, so stylish, so cool that it makes this nerdy blogger have a little pitty party once in a while, but I keep going back for more. Some of my favorite posts are about her wedding… heart shaped pancakes for the meal… need I say more? Go take a peek!
Okay, so there you have it…
my new wicked awesome kitchen chevron wall!
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Whoa! It’s amazing the change that made! I’ve always wanted to do this pattern in my closet or something. Never thought about the Kitchen. But this looks great!
Thanks Laurie. I wasn’t sure if I was ready for chevron… I also wasn’t sure if it was on it’s way out (style-wise), but I figured it was only paint and it wasn’t permanent.
Send us a picture if you do it in a closet!!
Monica (and Jess)
Makes a fanTABulous difference!! Worth every moment of waiting in line, bugging hubby and making your own chalk line (I am AMAZED that you made your own chalk line….holy moly girl)…but WORTH every minute – it looks great!
Aww thanks so much! When I saw the chalk line was missing I almost lost it! lol… I’m pretty thrilled that I stuck with it.
I was just over on your photography blog site and I love the B & W “us” pics that you posted. They were awesome!
Thanks for reading and for your super kind words!
Monica (and Jess)
woah, statement wall!!! looks great though!!
Thanks Rebecca! So how was the wedding and your honeymoon??
Monica (and Jess)
I agree, wicked awesome. I think doing the wall next to it will be perfect!
At first I thought you were doing it with chalkboard paint…how fun would that be. 🙂
Karah
Thanks Karah! I totally thought about doing chalkboard, but I knew my kids would make a total mess of it, so I thought I’d skip the chalk on this one 🙂
Have an awesome night!
Monica
That looks awesome!!! Great job! Btw – what is the paint color in your kitchen? I love it!! 🙂
Kitchen is most important part in home. You have done best paint colour. Its look very bright and beautiful. Its too good.
I love this, the bold color choice was brilliant. Thanks for linking up at Burlap & Denim.
Looks beautiful!! Megan
Wowzers!!! I love your chevron wall!! I would love for you to link up at my party going on now!
I’m a new follower, too!
Jill
http://www.jillifyit.com
awesome looks ammmazzzing
I LOVE your new wicked awesome kitchen wall!
This is my first time visiting your blog – I’m your newest follower.
Really cool! I just did a chevron wall in my house too–I love how it’s a pop of interest, and not overwhelming!
that is a lot of work but a great return!! very cool!
I love the POP of the stripe wall! I would also love for you to link up at my linky party via: http://ourdelightfulhome.blogspot.com/2012/03/show-me-what-you-got-linky-party-6.html
Mrs. Delightful
http://www.ourdelightfulhome.blogspot.com
Very creative, guys! The art work really changed the mood of the kitchen, it’s like some professional artist have done it. It really stands out! So, where did you get the idea of choosing a design like that?
Chase Conely
That looks fantastic, but I don’t know that I’m patient enough to measure all that out! I’m very impressed with your work!
you are so brave– not sure I have the patience and am sure I would screw it– still I shared this blog post with my readers today with more do it yourself ideas for incorporating chevron http://schulmanart.blogspot.com/2013/05/decorating-idea-painting-diy-chevron.html
LOVE what you did with the chevron!!!! I am considering painting one wall in my kitchen a dark teal color with chevron. But I’m not sure what the coordinating color should me??? The Chalkboard back splash and Perfect Chalk Method links are not working in this blog post. Do you have links you could share? THANKS so much for sharing you fabulous decorating style!!!