Giant Whiteboard Mural: Fun for Kids, Great for an Office

5 Materials
$350
5 Days
Medium

How much do you love dry erase boards? I LOVE THEM -- I keep track of most of my life on one. My kids love them too and honestly, they are so useful for so many things. But most of them are kind of boring. And they never feel big enough! When I was redesigning my home office I came up with a brilliant solution that solves both of those problems.


I made a wall mural INTO a whiteboard. What to learn how to make your own?

Materials Needed:

  • Large peel and stick wall mural
  • Smoothing tool
  • Utility knife
  • CLEAR dry erase paint (very important that you buy the clear)
  • Foam Roller
  • Paint Tray


Tip: In order for this project to work well, you need to choose a mural design that will allow you to see what you're writing. I go into more detail on what to look for in the full post.

First, you need to hang the wall mural.


For this step, you’ll need that smoothing tool and utility knife. I won’t sugar coat it: things might get a little infuriating, but I know you can do it.


Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for hanging your particular mural. In this photo, I quickly tacked up the top of each panel to get a feel for where to position the mural on the wall.

It’s important that you hang this as smoothly as possible with no air bubbles or only a few small ones that don’t bug you if you just can’t get rid of them.


Tip: If an air bubble does crop up, just make a very small incision with your utility knife and skim over it with your smoothing tool to press the air out. That usually does the trick.

After installation, wait 24 hours before moving onto the next step to be sure no new bubbles crop up. If they do, I found that poking them with a pin then re-smoothing the bubble to release the air works pretty well in most cases.

Finally, this is where the magic happens. Time to turn this into a whiteboard using the dry erase paint!


VERY IMPORTANT THINGS:
  • Triple check to be sure you bought CLEAR paint, not white. 
  • Make sure you bought enough for at least two coats. The wallpaper will absorb a small amount of paint, which is why you want the extra coat at minimum.
  • Set aside enough time to finish painting without interruption. Once activated, the paint is only good for 90 minutes.


Keeping all that in mind, start painting! Just activate one kit at a time, and allow each coat to dry for 30 – 45 minutes before adding the next coat. In my case, I rolled a full kit to cover the wall, waited 45 minutes, activated the second kit, rolled that. Done and done. By far the easiest step of the process.


And now, YOU HAVE TO WAIT.


The paint needs to cure for a minimum of 3 days, but I would even go so far as to allow 5 if you added more than two coats.


If you write on your board before the paint has cured it will be ruined.

The marker won’t wipe off and you will be very very sad.


I don’t want that for you.

Finally, it's time to use it!


You did it! Your whiteboard is beautiful and ready to write on. Invite your kids in to play — they’ll love that they can actually draw on these walls. Just make sure they know that it’s just THIS wall…


P.S. Only use dry erase markers on this. Regular markers will not wipe off (sad trombone).

Resources for this project:
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Brianna at Bloom in the Black
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
  2 questions
  • Maryestrada0214 Maryestrada0214 on Sep 09, 2019

    Yes yes were do you get wallpaper?

  • Jaxon Jaxon on Sep 09, 2019

    How is it compared to an actual white board?? LOVE the idea!! Thanks for sharing😊

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  • Margaret Margaret on Sep 10, 2019

    Just a little tip: often if you use the incorrect marker on a whiteboard you can go over it with a dry erase maker and it will wipe right off. Sometimes you need to write over more than once, it will do the trick.

    As I said "incorrect marker on whiteboard" I don't know how it will go on the mural.

    Marnie

  • Carol Carol on Sep 10, 2019

    Stunning!!

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