I found this old cupboard door at a garage sale in the MacGrove neighborhood a couple of years ago.  I originally painted the inset with chalkboard paint, added a chalk pencil design and put it in my occasional sale for $22.

Nobody bought it the first year.

Nobody bought it the 2nd year.

I had a couple of people ask, is that design permanent?  No, it isn’t.  I think that was the wrong answer.  Or maybe it was the right answer, but they didn’t want chalkboard?  I’m not sure.

Either way, it didn’t sell.

OK, I can take a hint.  And I was bored last night so I decided to restyle it.  I sanded it down and casually slapped on a few layers of milk paint.  I don’t normally paint over existing paint, so this was an experiment for me.  I got a lot of chipping over the original paint, but not much at all over the chalkboard paint.  Interesting.  I had mixed the final coat of Linen a bit thicker than usual and dried it with a blow dryer to get some crackle going on.

But, I was aiming for super chippy, layers of ‘age’ and slightly grungy.  A little scraping, sanding and dark wax later, and that is pretty much what I got.

I added a French Market stencil and presto chango, a fab new sign.

 I’m kind of loving it in my own kitchen.  I might just have to keep it now.