DIY Whiteboard

I was spending some time with my kiddos and nieces the other day when we were talking about they each would like to decorate their rooms. My oldest niece mentioned that she would really like to have a whiteboard for her wall and I thought: Hey, I can probably make that happen with stuff I already have!

Read on to see how easy it is to custom make your own whiteboard:

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Materials

For this project I used a garage sale framed art piece and a roll of Contact brand adhesive white board paper that I picked up at a thrift store. The framed art was $1 and the Contact paper was around $2.

I'm really big on picking up cheap art pieces if I like the frame. You never know what project might come up and having a good selection of frames on hand is convenient. Just remove the art and you have a frame all ready to go at a fraction of the cost!

I'll be honest about the Contact paper though, I had nooooo idea what I was going to use it for. It was was one those situations in the craft section of the thrift store where I went, "Hey, this could be neat" and into the cart it went. I snagged a roll of Contact chalkboard paper the same day too😉

(You can find similar adhesive whiteboard paper here on Amazon)

Step 1

After opening up the frame and removing the glass, I placed the art (painting side down) on my table and applied the Contact paper to the backside of the art, folding the edges of the Contact paper up and around the art piece itself. That left me with the same painting, now with bits of Contact paper around the edges.

But why though? Because the painting was matted and the mat board was glued into place, the surface was indented. Had I applied the Contact paper to this side, it would have been lumpy. By flipping the art over and using the back as the front for the whiteboard, I had a nice even surface that was already cut to fit the frame.

Note: You no longer need the glass that was in the frame, you want the front to be exposed whiteboard material.

The photo above shows the art with the Contact paper applied to the back of the painting and the painting inserted backwards into the frame so that the front of the frame is now a clean whiteboard. I didn't like the messy look of the back however...

...and remedied that by adding a couple of sheets of card stock and sealing the perimeter with a bit of hot glue. This step isn't necessary but since it was a gift for my niece I wanted it to be polished.