DIY Dry Erase Boards

Also known as How to Be Disproportionately Excited About Finishing a Project.

We do most of our homeschooling at the dining room table (or, let's be honest, the couch if it involves reading). We've got a good sized eating space and a dedicated school shelf so it works out well.

Awhile ago, we bought a world map from Amazon and Chris built a simple pallet for it to hang on. We really like it, and I always knew I wanted to add something to display our CC memory work on the walls as well. I wasn't in a huge rush since the kids can't read, but it's been on my mind for awhile, and I think it'll be a neat way for Chris to see what we're learning.

I toyed around with dry erase paint, but all my online research concluded that it was a) pricey and b) tricky. Apparently a lot of stores sell expired material which doesn't work well, so I kept hunting. I found dry erase vinyl at Hobby Lobby and decided to try that. So without further delay, here are my 6 steps to DIY dry erase boards.


1. Purchase small wooden plaques at Hobby Lobby in October. Occasionally see them on your craft shelf and think you know, I should really finish that project. Leave said plaques alone until July when you're trying to finish everything on your pre-baby list.

2. Sand the plaques and paint the edges. Here's where I messed up: I should have painted the entire thing. I mixed the paint color from a couple samples I had and probably wouldn't have had enough, but had I done so, it would have saved me a step.



3. Realize the adhesive dry erase surface is more see through than you thought. Also cut cardstock to fit each plaque, attach that to the dry erase surface and use glue dots to put it on the plaques.

4. Use Silhouette to cut out the subject names from vinyl and attach to each plaque. Mine are very obviously not perfectly straight, but we just hope people don't point that out. ;)



5. Hang with command strips.

6. Show everyone who cares (and even some who don't) because you are so thrilled to finally be done with said project.



The project ended up being fairly reasonably priced, which was nice. The plaques were $18 total and I used leftover paint and cardstock. The vinyl dry erase was $13, but I had a 40% coupon and didn't use all of the material.

Hopefully they hold up well. I can tell I need to add more glue dots, but I was running low and Hobby Lobby is an hour away (#smalltownproblems). Now to make sure I update the memory work each week!

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