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Homemade Whiteboards--what do you use?


yvonne
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Hi,

 

I thought it was "shower board" or "tile board" that one used to make whiteboards, but when my husband asked about them at Home Depot last night, they didn't know what he was talking about.

 

What's the term for whatever it is that one uses to make a whiteboard?

 

If you've done it, do you think I could attach it to the front of a regular door, or is it too heavy?

 

Thanks,

yvonne

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I've heard so many varying responses to this, so I wonder if it varies around the country?

 

We went to Home Depot and asked for shower board. It took them 45 minutes to figure out what it was and find someone who knew what we were talking about. When we finally found the right employee, he told us teachers come in all the time to get it. :confused: I would go again and ask more employees. Find the aisle that has the sheets for showers and you should be able to find it.

 

They were also able to cut it for me. Ours is too big to hang on a door. If you cut it small enough, I'd imagine it's okay.

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It is technically shower board, but it goes by various names. Dh may have to wander the aisles until he sees it. :D

 

It is pretty lightweight, as it is thin. You could easily attach it to a door.

 

Dh counter-sank the screws and then put some little white caps over them when he mounted ours, and it looks very tidy. It covers most of a wall in our homeschool room, and I love it. :001_smile:

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You can also purchase this:

 

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&productId=100670376&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&keyword=dry_erase

 

and paint it on any surface you want to make dry erase board. We have one wall that is dry erase and the other we used the paint on chalk board.

 

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100141287

 

 

The one thing we found was that we had to put double the coats recommended for it to really feel right. Might have worked with their recommendations but we decided to get another box and do it thicker for both dry and chalk.

 

It's been at least 7 years or so, and it's still going strong. The chalk board is showing some wear and tear, but it also got the most work out when the kids were younger, especially the boys, lol. The dry erase goes floor to ceiling and the chalk goes up to the window sill.

Edited by ConnieB
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I painted a white board on my wall as well. It does work very well and I like it. I will say that you have to make sure you are working on a smooth wall. I sanded the entire area, primed, and then painted on the white board.

 

The white board paint works well as long as you use within 4 hours. I didn't read the instructions the first time and it didn't leave the proper finish. I had to buy another can and repaint it, but it came out fine the second time. If you choose to do this, I highly recommend putting a wood trim around the board because I used bulletin board border and had to repaint that portion of my kitchen because someone went a little crazy with the Expo markers. Another reason to put a wooden trim around it is because the Expo spray will ruin the paint on your wall. I thought I'd try to use some to clean the marker off the wall and the paint peeled off. (I'm a genius...I know.)

 

I know this sounds kind of crazy, but it is really easy to do once you know HOW to do it right...unlike me the first time I did it. :D

 

HTH,

 

Andrea

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It is technically shower board, but it goes by various names. Dh may have to wander the aisles until he sees it. :D

 

 

DH claims to have no idea what I'm talking about, too. :glare: :)

 

It is pretty lightweight, as it is thin. You could easily attach it to a door.

 

Woo hoo! I have a closet with double doors (well, I WILL have double doors since dh can't claim not to know what those are! :) ) Anyhow, there's no wall space left because of all the shelves, so my brainstorm was to put the white board on these double doors. (When I get them. :) ) I'm so excited to hear that it's not heavy stuff!!

 

yvonne

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Ooo, Connie, I've heard of the magnetic & chalk paint, but I've never even heard of this! This might be even better than mounting shower board to the doors! And if it's still working well for you after 7 years..... Now I can't wait!

 

Thanks for the tip!

yvonne

 

 

 

You can also purchase this:

 

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&productId=100670376&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&keyword=dry_erase

 

and paint it on any surface you want to make dry erase board. We have one wall that is dry erase and the other we used the paint on chalk board.

 

The one thing we found was that we had to put double the coats recommended for it to really feel right. Might have worked with their recommendations but we decided to get another box and do it thicker for both dry and chalk.

 

It's been at least 7 years or so, and it's still going strong. The chalk board is showing some wear and tear, but it also got the most work out when the kids were younger, especially the boys, lol. The dry erase goes floor to ceiling and the chalk goes up to the window sill.

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I painted a white board on my wall as well. It does work very well and I like it. I will say that you have to make sure you are working on a smooth wall. I sanded the entire area, primed, and then painted on the white board.

 

The white board paint works well as long as you use within 4 hours.

 

 

Andrea,

 

Thanks so much for the painting tips. That must have been a bummer to do all that work once and have to redo it. Thanks for the heads-up!

 

yvonne

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I bought my board at Lowe's and actually, it was a millworks rep that told me about it. Lowe's labels it as "tile board" and yes, it is meant for lining a shower; but, it works great for a dry erase board. It comes in 8' X12' sheets and costs around $12 per sheet. My dh and I cut it down using a circular saw to fit on our wall. The final product is 6'x8' and dh trimmed it out adding a lip across the bottom for markers/eraser. We use it all the time, not just for school, but kids love to just play on it. I clean it with the expo dry erase cleaner and a rag. Works great and is still going strong after 3 years!

 

HTH,

Jennifer

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It is also known as a dry erase board. Walmart and any office supply store has them.

 

 

Yeah, for 300 bucks for a 4' by 6'. You can get a 4' by 8' and get it trimmed for free at Lowe's or Home depot for 15 bucks TOTAL! Just say the kind of board teacher's buy as dry erase boards. They should know, the best place to ask it the guy doing the trimming, he's definitely seen it before! I paid 14 bucks for my boards, and its great! I mounted it to my drywall using Liquid Nails (glue). You can even trim it with nice wood and stain it for a beautiful professional looking board.

 

Board plain should cost no more than 20 bucks with glue. Add trim, and it will be at least 40 total. I use a regular eraser to erase it, but at the end of the day I windex it and it looks beautiful and clean. Don't leave dry eraser marks on it for long periods of time (more than 3-4 days). And some colors stain more than others. Blue is bad, just about every other color is great. But even blue comes off id you erase it the same day. These boards are very sturdy at about 1/4 inch thick.

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This is SO cool! We have a smaller white board b/c they are so expensive. I just told DH about this thread and we are going tomorrow to get one to fill a wall in the school room. YAY! Thank you so much for sharing this info.

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We have a piece of tile board from Lowe's mounted in our living/family room, with wooden trim to keep the pens from straying off the board.

 

I have found that the tile board doesn't wipe off as easily as a real whiteboard, but for the difference in price I'm willing to deal with it. If you have trouble erasing with the "low odor" EXPO dry erase pens, find some "original ink" EXPO pens instead. What a difference! I had to use the awful, fume-y EXPO cleaner all the time to get the ghosting off when we were using the low-odor pens. Now that we've switched to the original ink pens, it actually does wipe off with a little elbow grease even a few days later.

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I also 3rd or 4th the whiteboard paint recommendation.

http://www.rustoleum.com/CBGProduct.asp?pid=128

 

I just painted my library room a few days ago and used magnetic paint, so I definitely suggest using that as a base paint. It worked out wonderfully for us! I already have a lot of whiteboards, so I opted to just leave this as a colorful magnetic wall. (Plus I didn't want to sand down our textured walls.)

 

But if someone was just planning this, you might as well have a magnetic whiteboard. :)

 

http://satorismiles.com/2009/07/17/painting-library-reading-room/

 

0907-paint-008-400x266.jpg

 

Love the picture someone posted of the whiteboard in their room!

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We moved and my really large one won't fit in our new school room. So, I used a poster frame with glass (you can use plexiglass too.) I put matte board with 2 sheets of scrapbook paper behind it. I use the blocks of color to make notes for my two older daughters.

Here's a picture,

Katie

post-5466-13535082945934_thumb.jpg

post-5466-13535082945934_thumb.jpg

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We could only only 4'x8' pieces at Lowes and Home Depot today but we got it anyway and and just going to use it long way on one wall instead of filling the whole wall like I planned. I didn't want a seam. We bought a piece of trim too to use to hold the markers and erasers. I can't wait to get it hung!

 

Thanks so much for the idea.

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I just bought the "shower wall" and had it cut to 4 x 6 for our wall. Ds will hang tomorrow. It is in the lumber section - mine was called "Plain White Board". Lowe's wouldn't cut it but HD did. It was under $11!! Wow - can't beat that! I just wasn't up for all the painting that a DIY chalkboard would have entailed.

Good luck

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