Marker Board Walls
Turns out that brainstorming is an epigraphic activity -- something best done on walls. Reading and writing on walls is a different function than reading a book. A broad wall-view is an ideal approach for collaborative design -- multiple views in a single glance. Thus the tremendous interest in flip charts, graphic capture, doodling, giant post-its, whiteboards, and all the electronic equivalents of those. By far the cheapest and easiest epigraphic display is a large whiteboard. And when it comes to whiteboards, you can't be too big.
The Cheapest:
You can get a magnificently large -- 4 by 8 feet --and fabulously cheap whiteboard for all of $13 at Home Depot. What you want is the Solid White Tileboard (sometimes called Melamine tile wall panel) used as a tile substitute in bathrooms. Some know it as showerboard because a couple of sheets of this and you have a nice waterproof shower stall. You'll need a $1 tube of panel adhesive to glue this 1/8 inch surface to the wall or a piece of plywood. Melamine is the same stuff official whiteboards are made from. These huge sheets are slick and work perfectly well with dry-erase markers. You can cover an entire wall for $50. You can also cut it into smaller pieces with a regular circular saw.
The Best:
Upscale from the tileboard guerilla wall, the premium epigraphic surface is ceramic coated metal. When I built my office/studio I covered an entire wall with this material. It takes a dry-erase marker with ease, but it also accept magnets, so it can double as a pin board. I layout books in progress, hang blueprints, charts, maps, or use it as an art galley -- whatever. When using markers on it there is zero ghosting after erasing (sometimes a slight problem with Melamine). This ceramic coated steel also comes in eye-saving low-gloss light gray color, so the blazing white of a whole wall is significantly muted, yet it has plenty of contrast for any marker color.
This stuff is called P3 Ceramicsteel, and it is not cheap (at least when covering a whole wall). You can get them as an unadorned sheet (a special order), without frames or mounting, but they usuallly come mounted on particle board with an alumium backing. These now cost about $200 per 4 x 8 foot sheet. I used the same material for small magnetic boards near my desk.
-- KK
Solid White Tileboard
4 x 8 x (1/8 inch)
SKU #A 253-540
$13
Available from Home Depot stores
P3 Ceramicsteel Makerboard
800-631-4514. Call them for local distributors.
Manufactured by Polyvision
(A Bay Area distributor is Fred Turner Co: 650-588-8883. They do not ship.)
Favorite (15)
Therese
Hi Kevin Kelly--- I literally just typed in "wall size whiteboards" in to google that led me to your posting on "Cool Tools: Marker Board Walls." Thank you. I am definitely going to explore the rest of your site, in the meantime... Thanks for the awesome info. I just moved in to a new space, and think although I am tempted to use the "cheap" solution since it's more within my budget... Wow, I think I am going to invest the extra bucks and go "Best!" Already trying to find a dealer here in Toronto. Merci bien encore. Thanks again. Cheers, Therese
Tom Trinley
Kevin, my company is considering covering a wall with Melamine to write on as well as project on (from a ceiling-mounted digital projector). Do you know how well the board takes a projected image? Thanks, Tom
Kevin Kelly
@ Tom: Projection works pretty well. Because it is shinny there may be a small hot spot, but it works.
Kelsey King
Hi Kevin, We are looking at using the melamine to cover a wall in our project management office. It would be really nice to be able to put all of our ideas up on the wall for brainstorming. I tried the sku that you listed for the melamine sheets at home depot and their site could not match it. Do you happen to have a link to their sheets of this material or does anyone know where this may be availible in Seattle, WA. We would like to do an entire wall and so the low cost alternative is really appealing to do what we want to do. Thanks for the artical and your assistance.
David Dick
Kelsey, Had the same problem as you with the SKU. I haven't purchased any yet, but found what I believe is the same material from Do It Best hardware stores (doitbest.com), SKU 106364. $15.99 per 4x8 sheet.
Dana Dawes
For a cheaper version of the magnetic whiteboard, we. used salvaged flush metal doors painted with white alkyd enamel. Most of them are 3-0 by 6-8 and the 1 3/4 inch thickness could be a problem in some settings, but they've worked fine for us. We got this idea from another firm that made the double doors in their office do double duty by using them this way.
E.W.
Good info. In addtion, DRY ERASE manufactures coating products for the purposes of creating "white boards". Paints are availble in white or mutli-color blackboard. They also have a magnetic paint option. For arond $20 one can create a 7' x 7' white board by simply painting the surface. Products are available at Home Depot. - I'm planning to give it a try.......
Maceo
This might help...
http://www.jmlproductsanddesign.com/DryErasePaint.htm
They have a dry erase paint product and a dry erase wall cover.
I have not tried either one, but thought it would be a good resource for the searcher.
Patricia
I love the idea but can't find it at Home Depot either -- did the board from "doitbest.com" turn out to be the right stuff?
Russ
@ Kelsey King: Hi Kelsey. I'm in Seattle, too. And, coincidentally, was also looking at solutions for PM purposes. Today I went to Home Depot on Aurora Avenue(about NE 205th & Aurora) and found "tileboard"(that's what they call it there). It's over by the lumber against the very back wall of the store. An 8' x 4' sheet is about $13.50 plus tax. They'll make up to two cuts for free right on the spot -- quick and well done. Each additional cut is $1. I had some trouble finding it at first. The two HD employees kept pointing me to the "backer board"(drywall type stuff) for showers, though I specifically said "tileboard". I had to flat out explain what I was going to use it for then they said "Oh, that tileboard is over...". They were very helpful once we got on the same page.
I haven't hung or prepped the boards yet but after a few quick tests with a dry-erase marker I think I'm gonna be very happy with this option, especially given the cost.
Russ
VJ
Could you just pin the tile sheet to the wall, and not go through the hassle of gluing it on ply wood? Would this material break if made a nail hole into, or would it not remain firm and slack making it difficult to write ?
- VJ