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.
7 comments:
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)
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!
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.
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..
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....
great idea! I know just the wall I can put that on. Thanks for the post.
Gorgeous photos, and your kids are so cute! Nothing like a fun (and free!) day to enjoy nature. :)
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