Yawn. Boring.
[This is part of the Problogger Home Office Series.]
As you can see in this post here and here I’ve got a very small whiteboard that I’m currently using – it’s not too sexy or large.
The question I have is whether or not to invest in a really nice whiteboard or to try something like whiteboard paint? Do you have experience making a wall have the capabilities of being drawn upon?
I know there are more than a few materials as well. I’d love to hear any experiences and/or any other materials or neat whiteboard implementations! Pictures help a lot!
My goal is to ultimately do more and more of these types of videos where I can share some strategy and tactics while explaining in more detail my thoughts behind them – be a bit more “educational” through video perhaps.
Any thoughts? I’m open to them! Hit me up in the comments!
[This is part of the Problogger Home Office Series.]
we painted a whole wall in one of our small group rooms. works great. even use it as a screen. got creative and had the students add a fun border. the paint isn’t cheap…and its worth buying a top quality brush and roller. probably going to do it in the the other rooms too.
i’ve personally had bad results with the paint. if i were going to do it again, i’d use these stick-on whiteboards
http://www.whiteyboard.com/index.php
You can actually buy “whiteboard panels” that can be cut to height from baseboard to ceiling. Then mount them on the wall and the WHOLE wall from floor to ceiling is a whiteboard.
I tried the whiteboard paint and the result was terrible. The paint ran and I didn’t like the way it displayed the marker.
So I painted over it and bought a regular whiteboard from Staples, about 4 feet by 3 feet. I found it useful to screw the corners into the wall to make a firm surface to write on (I didn’t like the bouncing).
My use of it varies. Sometimes, I just throw ideas up there and see what happens. Other times, I’ll have a particular list of items I want to do and mark them off as I do them.
I also put homasote, a kind of cork, on the wall next to my desk, so I have a place to pin up anything I want at the moment (comic strips, notes, index cards for my stories, calendars).
I just made a whiteboard wall in my office. The whiteboard paint seemed a bit expensive so we bought three 4′ x 8′ sheets of whiteboard for like $20 a sheet. It looks awesome and I love it for brainstorming.
Where can you buy sheets of whiteboard?
It was just a local lumber supplier that we’ve used in the past for stuff. The whiteboards are essentially a masonite wood (the really smooth stuff) with a whiteboard coating. I’ll take some pics when I’m in the office tomorrow and post a link to them here.
I like the glass whiteboards…
http://www.officemax.com/office-supplies/boards/dry-erase-boards/product-prod570107
In my experience, no matter how long you leave the writing on the board, it just wipes right off and doesn’t leave traces behind. Definitely unlike regular whiteboards where you have to scrub ‘em clean from time to time.
Nope. Go for the porcelain. Best period. But it’ll cost you $350+ for one.
I have bought 2 of them. Best investment ever.
We’ve got an entire wall in one of our conference room covered w/ whiteboard texture and it’s awesome. The room is great of brainstorming sessions and allows for so much more freedom than any framed whiteboard. Incorporating something like that into videos would be great. Have you ever checked out the RSA.org videos?
We painted one of the walls white and used it for a collaboration space for a Web site development project. I really like the results. The wall, combined with stickies and index cards, created an effective low-tech way to manage the project. Seems like others have had problems with the paint, but it worked well for us.
Yeah…we’ve used the whiteboard panels before that you can pick up at a lumber supply. Perfect for making the whiteboard the right size for the amount of space available. Plus, add a little bit of molding on the bottom and you have a “tray” to hold the markers. If you want to go crazy, you can frame the whole board in molding – which actually protects the edges.
You can get the Boards from Home Depot in the Paneling area. The Glass boards are great-You can see a sample of it at Roam off of Windward parkway.
You can also have digital prints laminated with a dry erase..This way you can be as creative as you want…
The Glass and or Acrylic is the best for long term, but are also the most expense.
The other options are a 3yr to 5yr life.
Good luck
Yeah, for $12, it’s hard to beat the 4′x8′ white panel boards at HD. Almost disposable at that price.
Lately, I’ve been more into magnetic boards. Got four cool ones from Crate and Barrel Outlet to post photos-of-the-month in our hall. They’re not cheap for the size ($25 for 1′x1′) but they’re like changeable art so totally worth it from my perspective. Oh, FWIW, you can write on them as well.
I also picked up 3 industrial-gray magnetic boards from Ikea ($12 for like 15″x30″) to use in my home office. Can’t write on these ones though.
So simple but love ‘em!
I painted a whiteboard on the wall back when I lived a couple floors above Rick Smith in the Trails. I liked the concept, but I found I didn’t use it that much and because the wall was not smooth my writing always looked kind of funny. I tried to sand the wall down a little before painting, but alas, it didn’t work.
Anyway, the paint worked fine and I didn’t have trouble getting it up there, but I wouldn’t do it again. I’d either just get a whiteboard, or like Darius recommended, possibly go with glass.
So we’ve got the issue in our new building with freshly painted walls and not wanting to stick things on them with tac as it will rip the paint off.
Oor solution is to use Magic Whiteboard rolls – http://www.magicwhiteboard.co.uk/
This stuff is epic. Its statically charged plastic sheeting that sticks to pretty much anything. It’s proving very popular with our Youth and Children’s church!
Hardware stores might refer to it as Melamine board, and you’ll definitely want to use molding to frame it in if you’re going for “sexy”. Good luck!
I’m a fan of IdeaPaint. If I’m not mistaken, they’re the market leader with the whiteboard wall paint, as they have patents on it etc. I also know this is what Matchstic painted their walls with. That’s saying something; they don’t use what doesn’t work.
IdeaPaint is good, but you have to prime and coat and and seal.
Because little pockets will show up and using markers on them will not erase well. It’s a TOUGH thing to get perfect o na wall.
I’ve used IdeaPaint.
John, I also have 50 FEET of industrial size white board film that I use in my coaching. I can cut you a slice. Better than paint. Better than a whiteboard.
I saw that paint you can put on the walls while watching “How I Made My Millions” and it looks pretty good. Thinking about putting it all around the house so we can clean up the kids’ mess easier.
Save your money and go for semi-gloss paint! It cleans well and doubles as a chalk board ALL around the house! How cool is that?!
But, if you’d like a white board type wall then again you could save your money and go for high gloss paints, they work just as well.
My ‘blogging team’ (my roommates) and I have a small white board in the living room – we use it to keep track of what we all have done thru the day. That way we don’t step on each other’s toes when it comes to blogging and promoting our blogs. Works really well if you ask me!