Friday, August 08, 2008

One little step for the cleanse, one giant step for the frig


The clutter around here seems worse, than in other homes, possibly due to the fact that our house is pretty small.  We have a finished basement, but tend to spend all of our time upstairs in two rooms - the kitchen and the living room.  

One day I was annoyed by the amount of crap on the refrigerator.  I'm all for saving the kids artwork, but it was getting out of hand.  I wanted to throw it all out, but I also wanted the kids to feel like we revered their craft and art projects.  My mom never let us put stuff on the frig, so I tried to come up with a compromise.  What I discovered was magnetic paint.  

I decided to paint a wall at the end of the kitchen with this paint and transfer some of the artwork, etc over to that wall.


Here's what I used:  painter's tape, "Nail Hole Patch" for the nail holes in the wall, a foam roller so that the paint rolls on super smooth, a paint brush for the edges, a paint tray (which I covered in foil to avoid a bigger mess), and a can of magnetic paint.  This stuff is crazy.  That little can weighs about 5 pounds - okay maybe three, but whatever it is - it is really heavy.  Oh - and the paint stirrer is really necessary.  The paint doesn't present in a typical manner.  It is really watery on top, when you first open the can, and then it is really thick on the bottom.  It took me about 5-7 minutes to thoroughly mix the paint.



Here is the wall I chose.  This picture as taken after I taped and patched the holes.  I ended up extending the tape to the ceiling so that the line was straight and crisp.  



This is a picture of the wall after it was painted.  The can suggests you put three thin layers on to make it more magnetic.  I was glad that the space I covered was relatively small.  On the left of the picture you can see some of the mess that was on my frig.




And here is the final "after" shot.  The magnetism isn't as strong as the frig, but I still like it so much better.  I found that lighter magnets worked much better - and heavier objects can't be hung at all.  

I like it.  It's different, that's for sure.



7 comments:

blackbird said...

It's a brilliant solution, and you did a great job...I love that you have that little room to hang coats and things, ours are in a corner of our kitchen. (messy)

Esther said...

Great Idea! You have me looking around my own kitchen to find a wall for my fridge stuff. Possibly even at kid level, so they can play with magnets...the possibilities are endless!

Anonymous said...

Great idea.

Remind yourself, that in all too short a time, your fridge will have nothing but magnets on it. No kiddie art.

It might change your perspective.

Anonymous said...

I have just ordered this blackboard paint in brown. http://tilanofresco.com/products_preview.aspx?page_name=Products/quart_gallon&restricted= Very cool, I hope, it's not up yet..

Jakki said...

It is different but I love it...

For the things I could fit, I turned my boys stuff into scrapbooks for them. For the things I couldnt fit into a 12x12 scrapbook, I've kept them safe to frame, box or protect in some sort of way.....ummmm my boys are both 13 and 15 so I think I need to get on that....

the two girls said...

great idea! I know just the wall I can put that on. Thanks for the post.

Jessica said...

Gorgeous photos, and your kids are so cute! Nothing like a fun (and free!) day to enjoy nature. :)