Let's just skip the 2+2=5 and faux "Bistro Menu" options.

September 28, 2010 7:34 AM

The doors to my kitchen cabinets are now chalkboards. There six of them. Now what?
posted by sourwookie to Media & Arts (29 answers total)

Grocery lists, favorite recipes, inventory of cabinets, messages to other family members, calendar, To Do lists.
posted by kimdog at 7:36 AM on September 28, 2010

Measurement equivalents--I can never remember how many tablespoons there are in a bushel.
posted by box at 7:38 AM on September 28, 2010 [8 favorites]

Quote of the Day
posted by JohnnyGunn at 7:39 AM on September 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

If you've got kids, you could make one panel the vertical equivalent of a "nature table" by having them draw a new seasonal scene each month.
posted by Bardolph at 7:40 AM on September 28, 2010

Drawings of what's inside each cabinet.
posted by abirae at 7:40 AM on September 28, 2010 [11 favorites]

Recipe substitutions: how to make light cream/half-and-half/2% milk/etc. out of skim milk and heavy cream. How to faux buttermilk... those kinda things. With cute pastel chalk illustrations.
posted by julthumbscrew at 7:40 AM on September 28, 2010

THIS IS NOT ALICE'S RESTAURANT must decorate one of them.

(Just channeling my mother there for a moment.)
posted by kalimac at 7:41 AM on September 28, 2010

Song lyrics. Replications of your favorite bathroom graffiti. Your grandma's recipe for pie crust. Excerpts from great food writing. Cartoon drawings of the contents of each cabinet.

Great idea, by the way. I have plans to make a small wall in my new kitchen into a magnet-chalkboard wall (our fridge is stainless steel) and now I'm thinking adding some cabinets to that plan would be really functional and fun.
posted by padraigin at 7:42 AM on September 28, 2010

Reproductions of long murals...
A Last Supper rendered in chalk, with the table covered with the contents of the cabinets?

Medieval style triptychs? The Annunciation of the Oatmeal?

Differential diagnoses?
posted by Pickman's Next Top Model at 7:45 AM on September 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

Dishes you mean to try out while looking through cookbooks.

Important discoveries: "Don't pour water on a hot skillet," "don't cook bacon shirtless," "phyllo goes hard in like a second." etc.
posted by griphus at 7:47 AM on September 28, 2010

Daily chores! And please post pictures somewhere as you've just given me a great idea. On behalf of my teenagers, who seem to have developed the idea that brownies appear every night to wash their dishes and fold their laundry, thank you.
posted by headnsouth at 7:48 AM on September 28, 2010

Something akin to this.
posted by emilyw at 7:54 AM on September 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

Cave-dweller style illustrations depicting your prayers and rituals to the domestic gods, pleading that they will bless you with their presence, do your dishes for you, keep the milk from going off, and inspiring you to actually eat the leftovers.
posted by Mizu at 7:55 AM on September 28, 2010 [2 favorites]

Headlines, sport scores, the five day forecast. Maybe even an email inbox.
posted by dirtdirt at 8:06 AM on September 28, 2010

Measurement equivalents--I can never remember how many tablespoons there are in a bushel.

Recipe substitutions: how to make light cream/half-and-half/2% milk/etc. out of skim milk and heavy cream. How to faux buttermilk... those kinda things. With cute pastel chalk illustrations.

This.

Measurements, that recipe you _finally_ found on making the perfect meringue, grocery lists, what herbs go well with your favorite dishes.....And you could, instead of making a bistro like menu for when you have guests, instead write some of the recipes down, as long as you're willing to share your secrets.

Also, decorating-wise, I suggest sticking with one, or maybe two, color(s) of chalk for writing words, since writing on all of your cabinets will already look a little scattered - best to tie it in with one color, with some little drawings of cooking utensils or herbs or something here and there in other colors.
posted by DisreputableDog at 8:13 AM on September 28, 2010

Feynman Diagrams
posted by Confess, Fletch at 8:38 AM on September 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

Oh, and you did say skip the bistro meno, but I used to plan my meals out a week in advance and write them on a dry erase board, back when I was more organized.
posted by padraigin at 8:46 AM on September 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

Not quite the same, but children's author Mo Willems has chalkboard walls in his dining room and has a lot fun doodling on them. Here's a recent example
posted by cottoncandybeard at 8:52 AM on September 28, 2010

A cabinet dedicated to a grocery and/or to-do list sounds like a great idea to me. I always lose the lists I have on scraps of paper before I go shopping - this way you can write things down as soon as you notice you're out and copy it down before leaving for groceries.

Other than that, a calendar seems like it could be handy. You could probably even paint a basic grid on to one cupboard and just fill the days in each month. Similarly, since your userinfo suggests you are musical, you could paint staff lines onto one cupboard for composing on the fly.
posted by maryr at 8:55 AM on September 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

I have a good friend who bought a place that came with the following emblazoned on the kitchen wall:

BE THE CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE IN THE WORLD

He hates it. It speaks to all the bile and derision he's felt toward new-age-hippiedom since the 1960s. But, lazy man that he is, he's now lived in the place for over two years and he still hasn't removed it. I think, secretly, it speaks to him, challenges his well-encrusted cynicism and misanthropy. I think he's afraid to get rid of it.
posted by philip-random at 9:16 AM on September 28, 2010

Every time you have a friend over, ask them to draw something small on your cupboard.
posted by ripley_ at 9:25 AM on September 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

YOU CAN'T HAVE COOKIES FOR BREAKFAST
posted by The corpse in the library at 10:07 AM on September 28, 2010

We did this! I put basic recipes up: pizza dough, chili spice mix, etc. I tried doing grocery lists or "what's in the fridge" lists but could never keep them accurate.
posted by kpht at 10:08 AM on September 28, 2010

If you have anyone in your house who regularly forgets part of food prep or cleanup, checklists for the minimum things that need to be done.
posted by ocherdraco at 10:42 AM on September 28, 2010

Whatever you use the last of, write its name on the door. Then make your grocery list from that.

Put the week's menu up there.

Assemble your weekend To Do list by writing tasks on one door as they occur to you, then execute on Friday.

Keep a list of what's in the basement freezer, or around the corner in the pantry, or otherwise out of sight.

Our kids have a chore that rotates each week, and that would be another thing to post on a chalkboard.
posted by wenestvedt at 12:59 PM on September 28, 2010

"Wash Both Hands!"
posted by Confess, Fletch at 1:00 PM on September 28, 2010

Maybe put "clean chalk dust off counters" on the to-do list you write on your cupboards.
posted by custard heart at 3:14 PM on September 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

Still lives of fruit/vegetables in colored chalk.
posted by trip and a half at 3:51 PM on September 28, 2010

The Treaty of Westphalia, natch.
posted by barrett caulk at 9:45 AM on September 29, 2010