Menu Planning with Chalkboard Wall Decals

My favorite saying may well be, “Let’s play it by ear.”

While spontaneity is great in certain areas of life, like summertime and vacation and road trips, it doesn’t work well at dinnertime. At least not in our family.

No menu plan means no dinner. Or takeout. Or a hastily thrown together meal that will have us snacking at the pantry door an hour later!

On those weeks when I’m being uber organized, I keep a running menu on a chalkboard in the kitchen. (My goal would be to be uber organized every week!)

That way, everyone knows what’s on tap for dinner for the week — most importantly, me! Because if 5 o’clock comes and I don’t know what’s for dinner, my brain stops working. I get stressed out and maybe just a little bit moody! And chances are anything I make on the fly — without a plan — isn’t going to be very palatable.

But just taking a few minutes on Sunday to plan out our menus makes dinnertime run so much more smoothly all week. Everything’s already thought out. Grocery shopping is easier. Recipes are pulled and ready to go. I don’t set out to cook and find that I forgot to thaw the meat or we’re out of olive oil or some other essential ingredient.

Having the menu hanging on the fridge serves as a constant reminder of what I need to do to make dinner happen ever day. And it’s one less thing I have to track in my head — frazzled, jumbled, busy place that it is.

I love my kitchen chalkboard menu so much that I recently gave my mom and dad one for their kitchen, courtesy of Wallternatives, a company that makes the coolest vinyl and fabric wall art!

My mom chose the Menu Chalkboard Vinyl Wall Decal, which has a bit of a French flair. The’ ChalkTalk™ Chalkboard Decal from Wallternatives are easy to apply to any any flat, smooth surface. including refrigerators, doors, and painted walls. They are removable and reusable and leaves no adhesive residue. You can write on them with chalk or chalkboard markers and wipe them clean at the start of each week!

My dad helped me out in applying the menu to their refrigerator so I could take photos. But this is typically an easy, one-person job that takes less than 10 minutes. For more vinyl installation tips, check out this how-to page at Wallternatives.

Chalkboard vinyl decals look like this when you take them out of the package. The decal, which is essentially a big sticker, is sandwiched between a backing paper and translucent transfer paper.

For the first step, use painter’s tape to position your vinyl decal on the surface where you want to transfer it.
Use a level and mark your surface lightly with a pencil or tape so you’ll know where to put the decal after you remove the backing paper.

Once you have marked where you want your decal to go, lay it face down on a flat surface and burnish the back with a squeegee (provided by Wallternatives) or a credit card to transfer the image from the backing paper to the transfer tape.

Peel away the backing.

Return the decal to your marked wall or refrigerator and line up the edges with your marking. I like to work from top to bottom and slowly adhere the vinyl decal to the surface to prevent air bubbles.

Using your hand or the squeegee provided, smooth down the vinyl decal, again watching for air bubbles and wrinkles.

Slowly peel away the top transfer paper…

… and you’re done…

… except for writing out your menu.

Hmm, I’m thinking I need to visit mom and dad on Saturday, right around dinnertime!

Wallternatives, which is part of Royal Design Stencil Co., has a huge selection of vinyl wall art — chalkboards, quotes, monograms, and so much more. Plus, they’ve just introduced WallPrints™ Fabric Decals, which are removable and reusable stickers and mural sets for your walls.

If I had a little girl or a nursery to decorate, I would definitely put up this hot air balloons decal.

And I love these alphabet tiles, too! Wouldn’t they be cool in a game room or play room? And since they’re repositionable and reusable, you could have epic supersized family game nights!

There’s also an alphabet tile set that lets you show your love!

I also can’t wait to try out the new WallAppeal™ removable wallpaper coming soon from Wallternatives. I think I may have found the solution for those bookcases in my craft room. Stay tuned!

I received compensation from Wallternatives, but all opinions are my own. For my full disclosure policy, click here.

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