DIY Whiteboard for about $20

A long time ago I read this how-to from Chris Metcalf for making really cheap whiteboards. It was interesting and informative. Since that point I’ve wanted to create a whiteboard for my personal projects. I finally decided to hit up the Home Depot(HD) here in Reston and purchase some tileboard, tape and markers. Nothing I’m going to talk about here is really very innovative, but a friend asked me to write something up on it. Plus, it was a fun project. In total it took me about two hours to go get everything and piece it together. It’s really very simple to do and you can easily have a very nice whiteboard that will cost you a fraction of what one would cost at Office Depot or a similar place. My whiteboard is roughly 3′ x 4′, and I now have 3 of them, and cost me a grand total of about $20. Try finding that elsewhere… Onto the details.
The Setup
The tileboard came in a very large sheet. I was looking for the really flat surface with the flat white surface that seemed to match the whiteboards I was used to. I found it in the molding and paneling isle…in the Reston HD it’s isle 23 about halfway down. Because I didn’t want wallsize whiteboards I had the guy there cut the board into thirds. This is still very large. The board itself cost roughly $12 for the entire sheet. I took the three pieces and started the hunt for a border.

White-boards need borders. If you are going to put this on a wall or near a wall, put a border on it. You want to stop the erased marker to stop before hitting the wall or you’ll have to deal with that issue. Also, you will want to reduce the wear and tear on the board by covering the edges. Thus, I wanted to find something that I could put on the edges. I was thinking of trying to get some sort of styrofoam thin and then cutting that up and just putting it on the edge. However, the dude at the HD and I had a communication mishap that turned out to be a great idea. I was trying to ask him where this stuff was and he thought I meant for hanging the board on the wall. He directed me to the double sided tape in their store. The more I thought about this the more it made perfect sense. You can use the tape for two purposes. To keep the borders _and_ to hang it on the wall!

I picked up some Scotch mounting tape. This tape is a little thick and therefore allows for some raised edges to stop the eraser. This is really handy. However, because I didn’t bring any sort of measure for this I didn’t know how much tape I would actually need. I bought way too much, and this tape is not cheap. The tape I bought was about $10 a roll, but I only used a fraction of that, so you can probably find some that costs less and is closer to what you will need. Also, when you are buying this, you’ll see some with different thicknesses. You’ll want one that will wrap around the edge and have enough grip on the edge to hold the board on the wall.

Assembly
So after folding the back seats down in my car and screaming over to pick up my lunch. I took everything home and put it on the ground…besides my lunch…it was delicious. Anyway, I started to realize I was going to need some scissors and maybe some tissues or something that could clear the surface/edges of the board. Remember I had the guy at HD cut the board, so there was still some residue from the sawing on the board. It was easy enough to wipe away.

So, I started by wiping off the board. You want it to be clean. Especially the edges as you don’t want the tape to stick to the residue instead of the surface. So make sure you clean it off. Then start out with however much tape you feel comfortable with. Remember, this is a DIY project…it does not have to be perfect.

What I did was started with a shorter edge of the board. I thought about cutting it but I found that by holding the roll of tape I was able to more easily guide it when attaching to the board. Now, when applying the tape you will want to do this such that you leave room for overlap. Remember, if you plan to hang this you’ll need something on the back. So I put about 25%-33% on the front knowing that I just needed a border. The back needs more. Once placed, I proceeded to fold the tape over so that the back had the tape attached. I did this for each edge of the board.
For myself, I am not planning on puttign it on the wall; at least not just yet. However, if you are, you should be able to remove the covering to the tape and then throw it up. While I haven’t tried, you should have no problem with the hanging of the board. If you do find some complications you should be able to throw a couple pieces of tape on the back and that should hold it well.