Spice It Up! {Thankful Thursday}

Good Morning and Happy Thursday! It is another beautiful morning here in Boston and I for one am looking forward to an outstanding day. Today, I am entering my favorite recipe into a bake-off at work, my best friend is coming to visit, and I am super excited about the post I have to share with you. Remember on Tuesday how I let you in my not so successful canvas art? I mentioned that feeling of imagining something resulting in a specific way in your mind, but then not actually coming to fruition. Well my friends, this project is one that I not only very specifically detailed in my mind, but that came out EVEN BETTER than I thought it would! 4 months in the making, I present to you, Chalkboard Spice Tops:

I began this process over 4 months ago when I thought it might be nice to have all of my spices in the same type of jar. I liked the clean and efficient look that it would provide and I thought it could provide a little extra character in our kitchen. So, in July, before Josh and I moved, I went to Bed Bath & Beyond, used some coupons and purchased 25 new spice jars. I really only needed about 23 at the time, but I figured a few extras wouldn't hurt. Then, I set about transferring all of the old ones into the new ones. I got rid of old spices, combined some half used ones, and also left a couple in their original containers - the nice ones, of course, not the shoddy plastic ones. Then, using a marker, I labeled the tops of each one. I figured once I moved in, I'd finish the project right away. Except then I didn't. And my spice cabinet was a big mess filled with crowded and hard to find spices. Finally, I decided it was time to do something about it. First, I used painter's tape to label the side of each container so that I wouldn't misplace anything.


Then, I removed the original labels on top.


Next, I set to work with my chalkboard paint. I used Rust-Oleom's (obviously) and a sponge brush and did 2 quick coats on Sunday night and another coat on Monday morning. For the record, you're supposed to wait 4 hours between coats. But this was for spice tops, not a full chalkboard, and it was already late on Sunday night when I began. (SPOILER: It came out just fine.)

Using tin foil and a sponge brush = the inexpensive way.

First Coat

Second on the left - halfway through!

Second coat all done! (I apologize for the lack of a 3rd coat picture. It was 6:30 in the morning and puppy who wanted to play.)

Then, I waited for almost the fully advised waiting time - it says 3 days and I was about 10 hours shy of that - and conditioned and began using my spice tops!


I've also relocated them to sit out on the kitchen counter against the mini-wall because it not only cleared out cabinet space, but also makes it about a million times easier to find what I'm looking for. And let's be honest, the easier it is to find spices when you're cooking, the better. And I absolutely love it! It came out even better than I expected and I love the streamlined but creative pop that it adds to our kitchen! This may sound a bit silly, but seriously, I'm thankful for chalkboard paint.