Shower Board as a DIY White Board
I’m finally getting around to sharing our DIY white board! It was a cinch to make. First, we purchased a piece of inexpensive shower board from Home Depot. We were happy with the 4′ x 8′ piece. If we had needed a smaller piece, we would have asked them to cut it on site. Shower board is literally the stuff that goes inside a shower.
Next, we screwed it into the wall. Then we used trim to frame it. (And by “we” I mean our friend Chris who volunteered to help with that part of it in exchange for a cooking lesson.) Then we caulked everything, primed it, and painted it. I purchased vinyl lettering from this Etsy shop. I used thin tape to create the outline of the monthly calendar and some sections on the right (for example, one of them says “On the Menu” and I list out the meals we’re having that week). Each month, I use a dry erase marker to label the days. I transfer events from the yearly section over to the monthly section. That’s it!
I was afraid it would stick out from the wall too much or be really distracting, but neither of those things ended up being true. We really like it!
7 Comments
Jillian Alcaro
All of the white boards in my school are made of shower board. It is an absolute nightmare for a teacher. After a month of so it stops erasing without tremendous scrubbing effort. I'm sure it's fine for at home, minimal use. In a classroom it is AWFUL!
Angela Mae
What a cool idea! I've been trying to come up with some sort of home-base message/command center for our house. White boards sometimes show up at goodwill, but this idea is much cooler.
That's interesting that Jillian has had a poor experience with them in her school – I wonder if using different types of dry-erase markers would impact that. At my work we have a few that take some serious scrubbing and others that wipe right off.
Anyway, so glad to "see" you again, Sara 🙂
Jennifer Tammy
Hi Sara 🙂
I tried e-mailing you twice at your yahoo account, didn't hear back. Would love to hear back from you.
Jillian Alcaro
Angela- I've found it depends on the age of the board and frequency of use. I am an ESL teacher so I am constantly recording things on the board. In my old classroom, where the board was only 1 year old, it was fine. In my new classroom it is impossible. I bought a big whiteboard at a thrift store and have leaned it on the chalk tray of my board. It really disrupts the flow of a lesson when you have to stop to scrub the board for 5 minutes!
Ellen Musco
Some of these were put up 3 years ago in the classrooms my program meets at. Mined works ok, but not like 3 years ago. Some of the teachers who have more classes have really worn theirs out. Can you repaint them? Would you have to sand them, prime them or anything? What paint would you recommend?
Sara Cotner
I’m not sure, Ellen! The shower boards are relatively inexpensive. It might be best just to replace it. Wishing you and your colleagues luck!
Kevin
Those of you who are having problems with getting these boards to erase, when you first get it, you might try waxing it with a good quality “carnuba” automotive wax (which should fill in the pores that would tend to hold the dry erase ink). Make sure you get one that is silicone free or it might end up too “greasy” for the ink to even stay on the pigment surface.
I haven’t personally done this, so I’d try putting some on a corner at first to see if it’s markable even with the wax. How I do cars is to wipe some on with the applicator first then immediately take it off with clean, soft towels. You probably don’t want a very thick layer of wax to build up by letting it sit on there and dry before wiping it off.