Entry Butler

After I made the magnet board for the fridge, I had hardboard left over, and I was still super excited to use the chalkboard paint. I had seen this entry butler at BN and was tempted to get it in attempt to organize our mail. Then I looked closer at it and realized I could make a version myself, for a whole lot less (or no) cash!

Chalk Board Entry Butler Tutorial

Step 1: Cut two rectangles of hardboard to fit your space (mine were 12" by 7"), two 7" lengths of 1/2" square lumber, and a 7" piece of 1/2" outside-angle molding. 

Step 2: Wood glue the molding to the bottom of the front side of one of the pieces of hardboard (this will be the chalk tray), and one of the 1/2" square pieces to the top (we'll call this Assembly A). On the back side of the other piece of hardboard, glue the other 1/2" square piece to the bottom edge (we'll call this Assembly B). 

Step 3: Take outside and spray paint the front and sides of Assembly A and the back and sides of Assembly B. Sorry, I didn't get any pictures of this step! I used left over Rustolium Kona Brown to match the other wood in my living room.

Step 4: Apply chalkboard paint to the front of Assembly B. I didn't bother to prime it and but it just took 2 coats to get a nice finish. 

Step 5: Apple wood glue to the 1/2 square wood pieces and sandwich the boards together. The bottom of Assembly B should be about 2" from the bottom of Assembly A.

Yay done! Since its pretty light and I didn't want to deal with screw holes, I just used heave duty command strips to hang it on the wall, and it works great! Now we can leave notes by the door, and we can put the mail up so Sheldon will hopefully leave it alone (the stinker loves to shred papers we leave on the little shelves by the door). I didn't have to buy anything special for this project, it was all leftovers hanging around the apartment! Hooray for DIY.