Updated Kitchen Work Station

We have a built-in desk/work station in our kitchen.  It's very handy and quite annoying at the same time.  Short of ripping out the entire desk and putting in a better cabinet, I organized and updated the desk this past weekend.  Here is the before image:

This really isn't that bad, either.  I'm kind of loathe to admit that, but this is definitely a "hotspot" and gets cluttered fast.  Lighting fast.

Well, in the hopes of cutting some of that clutter, and short of ripping out the cabinet and desktop and putting in a cabinet that is actually useful (ie - one that is all drawers instead of a super-annoying base cupboard with no dividers in it), I decided to make the back wall under the shelf a magnetic chalkboard, courtesy of some magnetic paint and chalkboard paint.

I took the bottom shelf down and taped across the line that was still on the wall from when we hung the shelf last year.  Then I opened the magnetic paint, which I bought about 2 years ago and hadn't gotten around to using.  The can actually recommends on the side of it having it mixed in the paint department machine - haven't mixed this can by hand, I heartily concur with the directions of having the paint dept do it.  It took a lot of stirring.  A LOT.  It also took a LOT of coats.  5 to be exact.  The can said 3.  I recommend 5, or even 6 if you'd like a magnet to actually hold up a piece of paper or two.  I did 5 coats and most magnets will hold up 2 sheets of paper on the wall.

I let the magnetic paint dry for a day, then topcoated with chalkboard paint (you could easily topcoat with a couple coats of paint to match your walls for a "hidden" magnet wall).

Here's the finished product, decluttered (mostly) and organized.  I'm pretty happy with it, and the girls are currently loving it - Kate plays tic-tac-toe on the wall almost daily.