Whiteboards are very useful devices for many reasons. I have used them for fleshing out ideas, planning crafts, keeping track of lists, and using them as maps for D&D (the land, encounters, etc). Downstairs, in my "general purpose" room, I have a large 4' x 8' sheet of plywood that was turned into a crude craft table. I wanted a whiteboard on top. I also do a lot of sketching on my bedroom wall and my wife thinks that a whiteboard would be very useful there.

This page is a chronicle of what we researched and tried in order to make and maintain a large whiteboard. I hope it helps other people out.

Making The Board

Basically, you need to pick out the best surface for your particular application. I have a page that provides suggestions. Take some time and research possibilities. What you need may not be the same as what I wanted.

For instance, a teacher getting a class of 3rd graders each their own personal "whiteboard" could just be 30 laminated pieces of tagboard. If you want to coat the walls of your house and still have colors, you would want a coating of some sort. If you needed it on a table surface or if you wanted to refurbish an existing whiteboard, you may need yet another type of product.

I have tried to rate as many types of surfaces as what I could get my hands on, and I put them on their own Surfaces page. I have written up instructions on how to make a whiteboard for all of the surfaces that showed promise.

Cleaning the Board

I have found numerous methods that people have used for cleaning a whiteboard, and then web site visitors have submitted others. I have tested them all on a commercial whiteboard with numerous non-whiteboard things added in, such as crayons and ink. Check out the results on the Cleaners page.

Once you find a nice cleaner, you can stick it in a spray bottle to have it convenient for when you need to wipe off the board.