I’ve been wanting a household whiteboard for a while now. I’d actually like a few of them around the house for various things, but at least one for leaving notes or whatever. But everytime I looked up whiteboards, I asked myself the same question:
Why are whiteboards so expensive?
I mean, I kind of get it. I also don’t. With both Ami and I job hunting right now, we can’t justify spending $80 for a whiteboard that’s something like 12-inch by 8-inch. Luckily, YouTube knows me well enough by now to recommend some pretty decent crafting and DIY videos, and this idea for a DIY whiteboard popped up a few times.
Items needed to make this whiteboard at home include:
- any size picture frame;
- craft paper to fit the size of the frame;
- scissors or craft knife to cut the paper to size, if needed; and
- whiteboard markers and eraser.
Depending on your frame, scrapbook paper would be great to use here! Most come in singles or packs, sized at 12-inch by 12-inch. If your frame is that size or smaller, I would definitely recommend scrapbook paper!
For this method, you would use the craft paper just as you would a photograph in the frame. That’s it!
I didn’t have to spend any cash on this, since we already had these around the house. The picture frame is a 12-inch by 16-inch frame from IKEA that was’t currently being used. Since the frame is larger than the craft paper I have on hand, I used peel-and-stick paper leftover from another project we did to line IKEA Billy bookcases. So this whiteboard isn’t quite a whiteboard exactly, since it has a light gray patterned background.
For this method, you will need to super carefully apply the peel-snad-stick paper to the picture backing, a little at a time. Here is a good YouTube video on applying peel-and-stick paper. I used a ruler to help smooth out any air bubbles that got trapped.
It’s simple, and I’m pleased how it turned out! So pleased, in fact, that I plan to DIY all of the other whiteboards I want for the house, instead of buying them. That way, I get exactly the thing to fit our needs and make it as cute as possible.