Update^3: Somewhere between Wordpress, TextMate, and the Markdown plugin, my post got corrupted and ended up in mixed HTML/Markdown. It should be fixed now.
Updated Update: FYI… As the weather gets hotter and more humid here in Seattle, my board has started to noticeably warp and it doesn’t lean nicely on my wall anymore. This obviously won’t be a problem if you mount the board directly to the wall, but if you want a freestanding board like me, you may want to look into using a stiffer backing board such as real plywood or OSB, or build a stiffer frame. I’m going to look at building a frame out of 1″x1″ on the back of the board to stiffen it up.
Update: Welcome, Makers! Hopefully this time I can keep my site from crashing too much.
Disclaimer: I can’t claim to have come up with this myself. I was actually inspired by a post in Cool Tools, an excellent blog full of excellent ideas like this. But I think its a cool project anyway, so I thought I’d write it up.
I’ll admit it, I’m a geek, and a very visually-oriented geek at that. I like to draw big pictures and lists and doodle. At work, I’m fortunate enough to be constantly surrounded by whiteboards. At home, I’m not so lucky.
Unfortunately, big whiteboards are expensive. A quick Google Products search finds plenty of 3′x4′ whiteboards selling for hundreds of dollars. Even a smaller whiteboard at Office Max will run you at least $30.
Fortunately, the same material that they make most commercial whiteboards out of is available at most big-box lumber stores like Home Depot for less than $15. “Showerboard”, which is basically cheap plywood with a waterproof white plastic coating on one side. Its the same stuff that they make cheap showers out of – four walls of showerboard plus a cheap plastic base makes a decent stall. It also makes a great whiteboard.
More details after the jump.
Step 1: Procure Your Supplies
Everything you need for this (except whiteboard markers, etc) can be found at your local big-box. Scout out the paneling section of the store, usually near the back, where you’ll find the tacky wood paneling that was in every finished basement when you were growing up. Look for the showerboard, also called “tile board” or other similar names, in big 4′x8′ sheets. I think my sheet cost $11.
While you’re at it, also pick up a matching 4′x8′ sheet of luan plywood. It’ll be the cheapest plywood you can find, usually around $8-$15 per sheet. They were out of the cheapest stuff, so I paid about $14.
You may want to cut your whiteboard down to a smaller size. I cut mine down by about 18″ because I planned to orient it vertically, and I didn’t need an 8′ tall whiteboard. You may want to cut it into smaller boards, funny shapes, whatever. Just make sure the luan and the showerboard are the same size and shape.
Also pick up a tube of Liquid Nails. I picked “Liquid Nails for Paneling”. Supposedly it’s designed just for paneling, so I figured it would be perfect for this project. If you don’t already have a caulk gun, you’ll want one of those too.
I also picked up some stick on felt pads so the board wouldn’t scratch the floor. You might want to pick up wall anchors or hanging stuff, depending on how you want to mount your board.
Step 2: Glue
This step is pretty easy. Pierce the Liquid Nails and load it into your caulk gun. Apply the liquid nails liberally to the back of the showerboard. The Liquid Nails only has a 10 minute work time, so work quick.
Avoid the edges so it doesn’t ooze out too much. Liquid Nails is easy to clean up before it hardens, but then it gets really difficult.
Step 3: Laminate
Match up the edges of the luan with the showerboard, and lay it on top. Be careful and try to get it right the first time, because you don’t have long to work with the Liquid Nails before it hardens.
Then weigh it down with random stuff to compress the layers. I used random stuff I found around my apartment.
Yes, that’s my wine collection and my dining room furniture.
Let it cure for at least a few hours, preferably overnight.
Step 4: Enjoy!
After leaving it out overnight, you’re ready to go. Mount your board as you see fit, and start drawing.
I just leaned mine up against the wall. If you’re fancy, you might want to wall mount it or hang it somehow.
My grand total was $28. Numerous improvements could be made, including a wood frame to stiffen it, or a nicer way of hanging it on the wall. But I’ve been using it like this for about a month and I’ve been very happy with it so far.
Tags: cheap, diy, projects, whiteboard
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Nice – I made a few of these for work a few years ago. I used MDF because it was the cheapest thing I could find at the time. There’s still a tube of Liquid Nails for Paneling on one of those $3 junk caulk guns in our office somewhere. :)
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Any Idea of where to get cheap ferris sheets so one could turn these into magnetic dry erase boards?
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I did this in my basement, but instead off just one panel, I did an entire wall, I had the seam oriented in the middle and a shelf for pens (beers) etc mounted over it. 16′ of whiteboard fun,
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Well, that settles it. I just figured out how to “remodel” my basement. With 3 kids (and I’m a geek), it would be put to good use!
Thanks a bunch. I’ll take lots of pictures and let you know how it goes!
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I’ve wanted a big white board for a while, but not for the prices they go for. This is fantastic, thanks.
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Any ideas on a strip to go around the outside so you don’t see any exposed plywood/mdf?
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I’ve been looking for a project just like this, I’ve been debating on building a “gaming table” ( for dungeons and dragons and other roleplaying games ). In order to do so I need some kind of grid pattern whiteboard or plexiglass over grid paper ( my current solution ). I’d like to give this project a try myself as part of a table, but any ideas on how to make a permanent grid of lines on whiteboard?
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Chad – Use 1/8 inch pinstripe tape. http://www.amazon.com/Trimbrite-T1114-Pinstripe-Tape-Black/dp/B00029XAYW
I’ve used it to turn a bigass whiteboard into a project tracker for video production
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striping tape will work, although it can be a nightmare to put on well. i’ve had good luck with masking tape. lay it down (get a fraction of an inch narrower than you you want yoru grid/hex) and then hit it with a light coat of high gloss black spray paint (or do every 10th line with red…) hex are more fun to mask, but doable.
sharpie markers will stay on but can be removed w/ dry erase cleaner and can be ideal for temp maps.
cheap sheets of iron, lookup sheet metal in your local yellow pages, or check local salvage stores (discount steel and axman in the twin cites come to mind)
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I’m majoring in music at the moment, and the first thing that struck my mind was that this same pin striping / black paint idea would be ideal for 5-line musical staves, too. With a big enough, vertically-board, with good staves laid out, you could have a lot of fun scoring compositions. Collaborative score-writing would be a breeze!
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Just an FYI, this stuff scratches really easily so be careful with it when you’re working with it. We used this in an office at work and it looks nice except for the scratches. We also used some plastic strip stuff to make seems which connect all the boards but dry- erase gunk gets stuck in them so they look like dark gunked up seams. Overall it’s nice, just be aware of the limitations.
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I love the idea of using this in a “kids area” of a finished basement. I’m also thinking I could make a good sized one for my office at work. Great project!
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Wow! I love this idea! I saw an idea like this on lifehacker about a year and a half ago and i just always wanted to do it. Now i moved into a bigger place, I definitely have the time and space for it!
thanks for the step by step!
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Why not just buy a reusable dry erase easel pad? I bought one at Staples some years ago. What I did was this; it had 10 sheets in it (a little over 2 feet wide by 2 1/2 feet tall), so I took 2 out, and have them “mounted” on my walls with none other than poster sticky-tack!
I still have eight sheets left, have made TWO dry erase boards to your one, and it cost me around $20. No, it’s not as solid a writing surface as yours, but I’m not writing a novel on it.
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“Showerboard”, which is basically cheap plywood with a waterproof white plastic coating on one side. Its the same stuff that they make cheap showers out of
So why not just use your shower as a giant whiteboard? You’re a geek. It’s not like it’s going to get washed away by that shower you’re never going to take. :D
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I put up four 4′ x 8′ whiteboard sheets, from Home Depot, next to each other to cover one of my living room walls. I did it for business purposes to work on the couch but friends love to play with them when they come over. They’ve left amazed at how much fun they’ve had with them.
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Hyip-Catalog.com – Your hyip and surfs monitoring site !
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Couldn’t you just screw the piece of showerboard to the wall and bypass the luan and liquid nails? Enough screws and you should be good, yeah? Just get some nice looking screws. Nothing like drywall screws to make a whiteboard look like crap.
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I did this several years ago – one of the guys working at Home Despot suggested it. I skipped the plywood backing, and made a wood frame (painted it black) to mount the tileboard in, then just hang it like a picture frame. It works well, however it does scratch up after a while. I’m getting ready to replace the original piece (good thing you get 32 sq. ft. of it, you’ll likely have spare pieces). Finally MDF (medium density fiberboard) would work well as a backer, it will more likely be flatter and cheaper as well.
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Instead of looking for sheet steel, there’s a magnetic paint that would be much easier to deal with…http://www.rustoleum.com/product.asp?frm_product_id=644&SBL=1
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Great idea we had something similar lying around after a kitchen renovation at work. Didnt seem to wipe off very easily though and we always had to use cleaner. Have you encountered any problems with this stuff?
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Hi
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i laminated few pieces of a3 white paper and blue-tacked them to the wall in front of my compueter desk. you can make it as big as you wish by adding more laminated papers. works well with Stabilo highlighters. i use it every day cost few dolars in any print shop.
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“walltalkers” is wall paper specially made for this purpose. It is not cheap, but the whiteboard marker will never stick to it permanently
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We had “walltalkers” installed. They were expensive and don’t erase well. The surface is not smooth so the marker dust collects in them. The specialty markers and erasers don’t work any better. Pretty much to get a clean board again you need to go with water and a towel.
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Great idea, definitely doing this when I move into my new apartment in 2 weeks.
For the geeks out there, in college I had a whiteboard table. Definitely indispensable when it came to coding and math homework. link
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Schools commonly use shower board for white boards. With heavy classroom use, the finish does come off and it gets hard to erase, but you can replace shower board (and we just use screws in the corners) several times for the price of real magnetic white boards. Someone suggested RainX puts a finish back on, not sure if that really works. Another neat thing you can do is cut shower board into 1′ x 1′ squares so each kiddo/team can have one. I even got a mom to cut out circles with holes in the middle so we could do fractions and probability with spinners.
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We used sheet-rock screws and mounted these side by side in all of our office long halls. Each hall was a major project that anyone could comment on. The bad side of this is that you can never have any clients visit and walk down the halls.
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you could still have clients come in and see how you work. i think if i went to a company to have something done and saw that they worked creatively and as a collective i would be more likely to purchase their products or services.
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Cool tip! Thanks!
Once as ScrumMaster I noticed my team couldn’t work from about 3PM-4PM when the sun came in the window. Facilities refused to give them blackout blinds (because the team room was no longer an executive office). So I bought big sheets of posterboard from an art supply store a few blocks away for $50 and put them on the windows for the team an hour each day.
–mj
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Quoting… Facilities refused to give them blackout blinds (because the team room was no longer an executive office).
So the company was willing to discard one hour’s work every day of the whole team because they wouldn’t spend a few bucks for blinds? Time to find a new company…
I have a section of this stuff at home in the garage — now I know what to do with it. Thanks.
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Are these things any good for movie projector screens, or are they too shiny?
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Booboo, get the white liner fabric used for curtains to block sunlight. It’s called “blackout cloth” even though it’s white. Perfect for a projector screen when stretched across a wooden frame. I made a 108″ screen (4.5 ft x 8 ft) with $19 of fabric and $20 of 2 x 2 lumber, braces, screws, heavy-duty staples and white duct tape (to cover the staples).
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I have covered my office wall and a kitchen wall in a sheet of white sign writing metal great for putting up stuff with magnets not so good for board markers – my wife’s bra measurements that I scribbled down whilst on the phone to her eight months ago look like they’re here to stay.
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True story: It was my first day in a new classroom. After filling the whiteboard using what I thought was a whiteboard marker, I was horrified when I could not erase my pearls of wisdom. Upon closer inspection of the object in my hand, the words “Permanent Marker” clearly stood out. A student came to my rescue when she pulled a small bottle out of her purse and applied a bit of clear gel to a kleenex which duly wiped away my scribblings(although not my embarrassment). I’m not sure how she knew that hand sanitizer would work so effectively to remove permanent marker, but I’m glad she did. It still puzzles me since I know it to be alcohol based, and I’ve tried denatured alcohol in the past on other whiteboard defilements (not mine) with no success. Since that episode, I still like to write on that whiteboard with permanent marker because it delivers such a distinct, richly bold black line. Of course, I make sure that there’s a bottle of hand sanitizer and some paper towels nearby. One caveat: If you ever attempt to experiment with this, I would advise you to first practice on a small and inconspicuous area. From what I’ve been reading, not all whiteboards are equal.
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Another tip: if someone writes on a white board with permanent marker, find an eraseable marker, and color over it, when you erase, both will come off!
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dude, the links from the post are broken, fix them. i had to c/p them to see the pages they were supposed to link to
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