Chalkboard Walls

My heart stops anytime I see a sharpie pen unattended at kid level in our home. Why, you ask? I present to you, kid art by sharpie:

On my husband's heirloom china hutch (please let my mother in law not read this! and does anybody know how one goes about getting this out?!?!)

Some wall art...I don't know, that one on the right I sort of see two ballroom dancers - a tango perhaps?

Anyway, it ain't good. So I've been thinking about using some chalkboard paint to designate areas where wall-drawing is encouraged. I read an article over at apartment therapy  which declared this trend to be very five-minutes-ago (in the comments people actually got kind of heated about why anybody would be stupid enough to put this on their walls. Really? Are there not better things to get heated about in this world?). I, however, don't care much for trend-watching, and think that this is just the ticket for us. So much so that I painted the laundry room door in our kitchen with it - a grocery list I can't lose! Awesome. And the kiddos will (hopefully) leave me alone while I cook (ha ha) and draw on the bottom half.

I worried about chalk dust, and yeah, there is some, but so far it's not enough to make me regret my decision. A wet rag and it's all gone. Here are some pics!

The kitchen/laundry room door

The boys' room. Oh by the way, check out my book slings (tutorial here) over on the right. Love these things. I'm at some point going to cut out some trees and waves from some fabric scaps and applique them on....at some point.

So, here's to no more sharpie marks on the walls and furniture!