Intern’s Corner: IdeaPaint — Whiteboard a Whole Wall

Craft & Design Workshop
Intern’s Corner: IdeaPaint — Whiteboard a Whole Wall

MAKE: Intern's Corner
Every other week, MAKE’s awesome interns tell about the projects they’re building in the Make: Labs, the trouble they’ve gotten into, and what they’ll make next.

By Ed Troxell, photo intern

I’m the photo intern at MAKE but I like to do more than just one thing, like starting my own magazine and shooting videos. A couple months ago I came across IdeaPaint in Inc. Magazine — it’s this cool paint that you can apply to any surface and turn it into a whiteboard. It comes in ten colors and can be used pretty much anywhere in your home, office, school, you name it, as long as the surface is smooth and flat. It’s great for team meetings, kids’ rooms, and brainstorming.

I sent the link over to MAKE managing editor Shawn Connally, and the next thing I know we’ve got a can of orange IdeaPaint on its way to the office for us to test out. We’re gonna make an orangeboard!

Before the package arrived I had the pleasure of talking to IdeaPaint co-founder Jeff Avallon, who gave me some insight on how to prep the wall and apply the paint, and told me that IdeaPaint has the most durable surface for dry erase that’s affordable for consumers. One thing to know, though — don’t use cleaner on the surface or it will wear it out.

Now, let’s get to painting. We tested it out here in the MAKE Labs, where interns Kris Magri and Tyler Moskowite applied IdeaPaint to a conference room wall. Instead of taking photos I decided to shoot video, which you can watch right here. (There’s a longer version on Vimeo if you want more detail.) While it’s a bit of a long process (you’re supposed to let the paint cure for 7 days before writing on it), it’s a lot of fun once you start. If you can’t find Daniel Carter, our creative director, at his desk, he’s probably in there, drawing away.

16 thoughts on “Intern’s Corner: IdeaPaint — Whiteboard a Whole Wall

  1. dazrin says:

    So, how easy is it to erase? Especially with the bumps leftover. How easy is it to clean when you get the inevitable film of leftover ink smears?

    1. Jared says:

      The video left off the most important part of a whiteboard (or orange-board in this case), and that is how it erases. How does it stand up to the different whiteboard cleaners that are available?

      1. Kris Magri says:

        Hmm, we didn’t think of that, maybe we’ll shoot some more video. Ed?

        See reply above though. It come off really good, but it does leave a smeared dust from the eraser. Like the stuff on the eraser gets onto the wall.

    2. Kris Magri says:

      It’s very easy to erase, it totally comes right off.

      The problems on our wall are
      1) We got some tiny bubble-like things in the IdeaPaint, and the whiteboard marker sticks to that. It’s only in a few places on the wall, but when you erase there, you see a lot of little dots where the marker residue sticks on the bubbles.
      2) There is a lot of what you called leftover ink smears, more than a regular whiteboard. But it’s more dusty, it’s like a dusty coat of graphite powder is left from the eraser. So we use a wet paper towel after erasing to get that off. And that works, then it’s all orange again.

  2. Chris says:

    Just checked out their website, you can order a painted sample that you can test with markers, cleaning fluid, and such.

  3. Kevin Montgomery says:

    (Disclaimer: I work for Egan Visual) Egan’s EVS surface is smooth, matte, and cleans even if you use a permanent market by mistake. There’s also a wall covering solution available if that’s what you’re interested in.

    http://www.egan.com/eganpresents/

  4. electronbee says:

    You can actually buy a product at home depot that does this exactly. Only comes in white though.

  5. r hayes says:

    good luck!!! I got a kit of (ideapaint) from lowes read info on box , got the oil based primer ,sand paper put 3 coats,sanding in between till it was slick as glass.cleaned and blown off with air ,put ideapaint 2 part together mixed and started with roller !!! hey the truck bed liner came out looking better. like i said good luck. rh

Comments are closed.

Discuss this article with the rest of the community on our Discord server!
Tagged

ADVERTISEMENT

Maker Faire Bay Area 2023 - Mare Island, CA

Escape to an island of imagination + innovation as Maker Faire Bay Area returns for its 15th iteration!

Buy Tickets today! SAVE 15% and lock-in your preferred date(s).

FEEDBACK