You've seen glimpses of my homemade dry-erase board over the last couple of months, made with a vintage plastic fru-fru mirror and some pretty fabric. I wanted to share with you how I made it, in case you wanted to put one together for your space. The project was inspired by something I happened upon on Pinterest (I misplaced that specific link but I'll share it when I find it again.) Edited: I Found it!
I have a serious weak spot for gaudy decorative mirrors. These came from second hand stores for just a couple of dollars each. They are plastic. But fancy plastic. As you can imagine, Lupine loves them too. The gold mirror is the one that now hangs in my kitchen, and the small red one will become a bulletin board soon.
Here is how I did it:
I removed the mirrors and painted the frames a glossy white. (I suggest you give your frames a strong blast with the garden hose to remove any dust and hair before painting, then allow to dry. I did not and wished I had. So many crannies for dust to hide.)
Coat with a few light layers of paint. I used spray paint on these because of the amount of detail on the frame, but since hace also painted a couple with a brush and had great results. If you are spray-painting just go at it from a few different angles so you get good coverage, and dry thorougly between coats.
When the paint was dry I wrapped the original backing (the hard board behind the mirror) with fabric and secured it with staples and/or tape, depending on the thickness of the board. I measured the mirror and cut a piece of glass to fit the frame (from a discarded cracked window) and assembled it.
Because I fell in love with a dark fabric I had to figure out a light-colored dry erase pen and after some searching came up with wet erase chalk markers. (I think they are made for black light boards at restaurants.) And that was it. Done! You can also choose a light colored fabric and use a regular dry-erase marker, but know that it will act like a permanent on a light-colored frame. (Ask me how I know.)
And now, somehow, my to-do list seems so much fancier.
P.S. If you like this you might also love this. Another recent late-night-craft bender.
you are such a smarty pants! love this. 🙂
This is super-cool!I’m pinning it right now!
It’s really great!
Totally just started following you on pintrest! Btw, awesome upcycling. You should consider doing a post on cutting glass! Homemade stained glass perhaps?
hahaha! late night craft bender. love it!
Hooray, thanks! Currently scouring thrifts for cool frames… Psyched.
Brilliant! We used to play Pictionary on our windows in college, but I never thought about doing this for a dry erase board.
wow! that’s wow! I want one!
I had seen a few homemade dry erase boards on various blogs that were so ridiculously easy that I had to try one. I knew I’d be refinishing a frame for the chalkboard anyway, so I decided to do a picture frame dry erase.
I just acquired (dumpster diving) an old dresser mirror. The silver backing is REALLY mottled and cracked and so the reflection is almost obsolete. Thought this would make a good ‘dry erase’ board for my attempt at family organization! Thanks for making this so easy 🙂