Supersize Your White Board (July 29, 2014) by BOARDLINE(BoardLine) Office Supplies Inc.
Supersize Your White Board - Make an entire wall your whiteboard
Supersize Your White Board - Make an entire wall your whiteboard
So, like I said , I LOVE white boards. I find them a great way to quickly jot down thoughts for later. I find them so useful that I had bought 3 and they weren't big enough. Then one day while I was waiting for some paint in Home Depot, I came across a Rustoleum paint product that allowed you to turn an entire wall into a white board. Talk about kismet!!
There are several things about this product, that you should know. Most important is that you need to have patience with it. This is not a DYI product that you can skip a few steps on. If you skip any step (or do them wrong) then this product will not work. I look at it as being finicky :). Before you take on this product, be sure to read the Amazon customer reviews, and read them all! It will give you an idea of the products issues.
At this point you are probably scrunching your eyebrows and wondering with all of these issues, why would anyone buy it?
Easy, because the size of writable area that you get, makes it well worth the product's cost and the elbow grease.
Here is what you need to know:
1) When you get the product make sure it hasn't expired. Each can bottom has a datestamp on it, The first character is a letter (for example T or P) and the second character is the last digit of the year it was made. So 1999 is a 9 and 2010 is a 0. If you see an 8 or a 7 return it. (If you buy it from Amazon, they will pay for return shipping if you let them know it has expired)..
2) Use primer. Even on light colored walls. Primer is not always about transitioning paint colors, it is also about getting the paint to stick to the wall. And in this case, that's what we need primer for. To get this stuff to stick to the wall
3) Sand baby sand. Get some fine sand paper and sand the surface. Sand it well. (Don't make that look, you can't skip this step). Then get a vacuum and vacuum the wall. Then get a lint free dust cloth and wipe the wall. Yep, that is all just 1 step.
4) Now, mix each can thoroughly. Best bet is to use a paint mixer attachement for a drill, or use a lot of elbow grease and mix those puppies until there is a single consistency. Then mix the cans together (according to instructions) and mix the heck out of it.
5) When they say use a high dense foam roller for smooth finishes on the instructions, that is exactly what they mean. Do not use any other type of roller. Get one that specifically says "high dense" for "smooth" finish. Smooth, light-med will not do the job here.
6) Apply a minimum of 4 coats (box says 2, but trust me, it's 4 coats). Make sure each one is dry in between, and get it all done within 2 hours of mixing the cans (the instructions provide more detail on this).
7) Wait 5 days. Then try using the dry erase markers (and use normal dry erase markers, don't use the low smell ones). And walla, you have your whiteboard wall!
Pat 's Big Tip: I learned all this by messing up my first wall. After that experience, I decided to get cheap wood particle material at Home Depot (It was about $2 for each 2 foot by 4 foot piece). I bought 6. And prepared those out side as if they were the wall and applied the paint. Then I hung them up in my office. I like this set up much better, because now I can take them with me when I move, or move one to another room, etc.