Cabinet Door Make Over

Whew...what a busy day here!  Getting ready for my children's Halloween party at school, making so many things and then I decided to finally finish a cabinet door that has been staring me down all week.  I have a tendency to put things out where they will get on my nerves so that I'll finish them...sometimes it works, sometimes I wind up with a pile laying around and thoroughly frustrated that my crafty-ness is not working.  Today, was a good day...I was SOOO crafty!  Hold on to your hats...I took pictures!!  You're proud of me right?

Here's the story:  A woman I know was getting her kitchen remodeled so I asked what she was going to do with the cabinets.  I had seen so many cabinet door DIY's that I was itching to take a shot at one.  Well, the woman was just throwing them out, so I carted them all home.  She still had all of the hardware attached and requested it back once I took them all apart.  She also requested one of whatever it was I was going to make...easy enough, right?  I got the doors in April/Mayish...it's now October and I'm just making her one, and by the way it's only because she's been nagging asking me about how I made out.

Here is my mini-photo tutorial...enjoy!

CABINET DOOR MAKE-OVER

First you want to thoroughly clean the door with some soap and water, then let dry.

Nice and clean

I used Chalkboard Contact Paper (vinyl).  This is my first time using this product.  It had great reviews, so we shall see.  I know from the start that you must need to be on an entirely flat surface for this vinyl to look PERFECT.  I'm working with wood...not so perfect, but looks good anyhow.  I purchased the chalkboard vinyl from Amazon for a terrific price...$7.16 for 6 feet of it.  You want to cut your vinyl to the length and width required for your cabinet door.

A little big, but I'm going to trim it to be perfect.

After you peel the backing from the vinyl, place the vinyl on the clean, dry, cabinet door and start to squeegee from the center out to prevent air bubbles.  If you get an air bubble that you absolutely cannot squeegee out, pop it with a small pin.

Squeegee from the center out across the door

After the vinyl is in place, make sure it is tight in the corners and grab your exacto or razor knife and trim the edges to make it perfect.

All on, now just have to trim the edges

After you've trimmed everything up, you want to season your new chalkboard with a piece of chalk.  Just rub the chalk all across the chalkboard until the entire thing is covered.

Seasoning the chalkboard...do NOT skip this step.

Once seasoned, you can wipe the chalkboard down with a rag.  I used a damp rag and then wiped it dry.

Looking good, almost done

I'm a fan of chalkboard markers.  They are not permanent, but they don't rub off until you use water to remove them.  The markers are good for writing chore lists or things that you don't want to be rubbed off of your chalkboard by accident.  

Here she is...my first cabinet door make-over

Sorry, I had to blur the name I placed on the board out.  I'm not a photoshop wizard, hence the small type.  I just used the chalkboard maker to write the family name of the woman I'm giving this to.  You can write whatever your heart desires here...it's yours after all :o)

After I had the vinyl in place, seasoned the chalkboard and wrote the family name, I drilled three holes at the bottom of the chalkboard.  I didn't want to putty the initial knob hole, and I had remembered that the woman wanted her knobs back, so I tried to kill two birds with one stone here.

I think it looks good.  

These are a great gift and with only 65 days till Christmas, something you may want to consider.  

Thanks for checking out my page!!