A little while ago, I promised in my post about chalkboard paint that I would do some projects with marker board paint and report back. Well, over the weekend, I bought a can of Rust-Oleum dry erase paint and tested it out. I decided to use the paint on three things: part of the wall in my husband’s office, the top of the desk I am re-doing for my daughter’s room, and a large artist-style jumbo clipboard. I can’t believe this stuff worked, but it did, and I’m pleased with the results.

First, I put the desk and the clipboard in the office so that all of my painting surfaces would be close to each other. I used blue painter’s tape to mark off the section of the wall I wanted to paint (see Figure 1). Then, I lightly sanded all of the surfaces and then wiped them down with a moist paper towel. Once my surfaces were ready, I mixed the two separate containers that came in the kit to make the paint. I started with the wall and applied a thin coat of the paint. I then did the desk and the clipboard. At this point, I had 20 minutes to burn while the paint dried, so I went to watch a little HGTV. I repeated the coating process three times on the desk and the clipboard and four times on the wall. After an hour of final drying time, I removed the painter’s tape from the wall. The surfaces looked great and I was dying to try them out but the box said I had to wait two days before writing on it! I hate waiting but I did anyway.

After waiting the required time, I let my toddler loose on daddy’s office wall after carefully explaining to her the difference between this special white area and the rest of the house. The markers wrote on it just fine and a damp paper towel erased it without too much of a problem. There were faint impressions still of what she drew so I am not sure how it will work out over the long haul. I will update everyone after a month or two of use. Overall, I am satisfied with the product but make sure you paint four coats on a wall. I think I would have had better results if I’d put one more coat of paint on everything.

Tips:

1. The paint is really runny! Make sure you have a damp towel on hand to wipe off drips.
2. Paint several thin coats rather than trying to apply it too thick. The instructions on the box say two coats is enough, but I did three to four on everything I painted.
3. If you are going to paint on any type of color, paint a base coat of flat white paint first. Since the paint is so thin, it doesn’t cover very well.
4. Make sure your surface is VERY clean and smooth. Any bumps are going to show through.
5. Gather a few extra items you might want to paint in case you have extra paint when you’re done with the main projects. Once the paint is mixed, you can’t store it — I had to throw some of mine away because it was extra.

Related post: Chalkboard paint.