
Paint that turns walls (or any surface) into a whiteboard. - fnazeeri
http://www.ideapaint.com/site/ideapaint_work.html
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daltonlp
Our company (<http://www.clockwork.net>) used ideapaint to create
wall/whiteboards in our new office this spring.

Yes, there are other whiteboard paints. This stuff is different, and far
superior. Dry-erase marker comes of instantly. No residue at all.

It's some kind of epoxy or similar material, with a separate catalyst which is
mixed with the paint. It forms a very thick, _incredibly_ hard surface.

Yes, the price is quite high. That sucks.

The odor also sucks. It smells like superglue for a day or so after
installation. The whole building smelled bad for a few days. After a week the
smell disappeared completely.

It's also very high-gloss. This was a big disappointment for one of the rooms,
which has a projector aimed at the whiteboard/wall. The glare was awful.

On average though, it's a good product. It makes a fantastic whiteboard.

~~~
quizbiz
would love to see pictures.

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lutorm
Slightly less innovative: use glass (windows, doors, or just put glass panes
on the wall). Works better than any whiteboard I've seen, we've had one in our
house for 10 years and it erases completely no matter how long stuff has been
on it.

~~~
tjweir
Here's a How-To for a glass whiteboard:
<http://www.instructables.com/id/A_glass_whiteboard/>

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dsil
Cool idea, but at $3.99/sq.ft that's hundreds of dollars per wall. I bought an
8'x4' sheet of melamine for less than $10, which would have been over $120 for
that much paint.

~~~
tocomment
I could never get a straight answer about the melamine. Some people claimed it
had bad ghosting, others said it was fine. Also the people at Lowes had NO
IDEA what I was talking about when I tried to find it. (That was an exercise
in futility!)

~~~
tlrobinson
Short answer: yes, it ghosts. But it's not _that_ bad.

Certain markers are better than others. And rubbing alcohol or other strong
cleaners will clean it up pretty well.

At $12 for 4'x8' it's hard to go wrong if you're on a budget. You could even
replace it every so often once the ghosting gets bad.

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dryicerx
Hmm... kind of off topic, but just realized a DIY idea offshoot from this.

    
    
        Plane of Glass
        UV reactive Dry/Wet Erase Marker
        UV Light From the Back or along glass edges

~~~
Xichekolas
You could get those UV LEDs and embed them in the edges of the glass.

~~~
twopoint718
I've seen something like this in restaurants before. They have some kind of
grease-pencil/crayon and a black-backed pane of glass that's lit with UV
light. It glows pretty nicely. Does anyone know what this is exactly?

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gojomo
There's magnetic primer, too, so you could have a magentic whiteboard wall
with two layers of paint. Here's one of many sources:

<http://www.lyt.com/servlet/the-Magnetic-Paint/Categories>

(Don't know what a room with iron-shavings magnetic walls does for cellphone
reception, though.)

~~~
fnazeeri
Cool. You could do all your brainstorming in a Faraday Cage which would keep
out Magneto and lightning (not to mention phone calls from your wife! ;-)

~~~
krav
Thanks for making me laugh!

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ellyagg
Last year, I tried many different dry erase surfaces, including dry erase
paint and many alternative treatments of showerboard. I even tried dry erase
paint buffed onto a showerboard panel. Surprisingly, this was worse than the
melanine alone.

After a couple weeks of testing, my conclusion was that plain showerboard and
a Mr Clean dry erase pad for an eraser was the best solution for a ghost free,
cost-effective dry erase board.

Perhaps the dry erase pad will eventually wear down the showerboard, but it
hasn't so far, and they're super cheap to replace.

~~~
lutorm
Did you try just straight glass?

~~~
ellyagg
No, I wanted to cover the 16 x 8 foot surface of one wall in my apartment, so
that wouldn't have been practicable in my case.

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mcav
If you aren't able to paint a wall, you can grab a 8' x 4' sheet of Melamine
from Home Depot (or similar), which works quite well as a whiteboard. It isn't
as robust as the expensive whiteboards, but can be replaced as-needed since
it's so cheap.

~~~
billswift
A four-by-eight sheet of formica is a lot cheaper than that "paint" too ($3.99
per square foot??). For that matter you can often find whiteboards on sale for
less than that paint.

~~~
tptacek
Not surprising, since the paint is better than an actual whiteboard: it fits
arbitrary, irregularly-shaped spaces, and doesn't itself take up space.

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chaosmachine
Good idea, but if you're erasing often, you will have funny colored carpets in
a hurry.

~~~
GavinB
Not if you paint it on the floor!

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quizbiz
I would love to see a room with nothing but the paint. Floors, walls,
ceilings, door. No furniture. My future conference room?

~~~
kirubakaran
Would be seriously cool if there is no gravity.

~~~
derefr
As a sci-fi writer, I thank you. My next story will include astronauts
floating about in a big, hollow sphere room, writing on the walls.

~~~
quizbiz
Do we get a free copy of the chapter?

~~~
lief79
Well, I would hope a sample text at least. Free advertising.

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madmotive
We've used this stuff all over our coworking space:

<http://www.magicwhiteboard.co.uk/>

Might be worth giving it a try before investing in paint. It sticks to almost
anything through static cling.

~~~
tezza
I second the magic whiteboard. It will static cling to anything, including the
ceiling!

It comes in a carrying box, like cling film. So you can easily take it to
client sites and stick it on their wall/glass.

Further, you do not have to erase them, you can just stick a fresh one ontop.
In that respect it is more like Butchers Paper.

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fnazeeri
You know what would be cool? IdeaPaint on a car! Why restrict yourself to a
few bumper stickers...now your wife can write the grocery list on your car
door! ;-)

~~~
froo
_"Why restrict yourself to a few bumper stickers...now your wife can write the
grocery list on your car door!_ "

I'm not sure if this would be cool. If you imagine some of the potential
shopping lists, I wouldn't want to be the guy advertising his sundries to
everyone he drives past.

eg

    
    
      * Tampons
      * Hemorrhoid Cream
      * Milk
    

Ouch! Just use RTM instead :)

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inovica
I remember seeing Fog Creek use glass whiteboards. I keep meaning to get some
made, and I don't like the idea of writing all the walls. Just found a link to
a photo:

[http://picasaweb.google.com/spolsky/FogCreekSNewOffice#52853...](http://picasaweb.google.com/spolsky/FogCreekSNewOffice#5285319604805018674)

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cesther
This whiteboard product from Rustoleum looks very similar
<http://www.rustoleum.com/CBGProduct.asp?pid=128> Note related the blackboard
and magnetic paints.

In NZ there is an alternative paint solution, Resene Aquapoxy in Black White,
though perhaps not as neat - as it requires a solvent to clean it off. see
article NB pdf
[http://www.resene.co.nz/homeown/habitat/pdf/paintnotpaint.pd...](http://www.resene.co.nz/homeown/habitat/pdf/paintnotpaint.pdf)

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datums
I really like this paint. Probably not entire room, but a single wall should
be justifiable. Just don't forget the wall.

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mahmud
If this gets cheaper maybe we can paint the Sydney train stations with it. I
"admired" graffiti art as a child of hiphop, but Sydney will make you wanna go
slaughter anyone with a spray can. The vandals have touched every surface of
all train stations :-(

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ojbyrne
I tossed this out there the last time this came up. Good for
parties:<http://www.flickr.com/photos/ojbyrne/3221346015/>

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nudded
you got to love how they labelled the cans with "this" and "that"

<http://www.ideapaint.com/site/products_work.html>

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anigbrowl
$3.99 per square foot...Or you could get chalkboard paint in black or green
for about $0.60 per square foot, maybe less if you shop around.

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celiadyer
I've seen the "blackboard" paint for children's playrooms, but this is
awesome. I prefer this to the static whiteboard sheets I've seen.

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joshhart
I have an odd feeling white rustoleum would do exactly the same thing...

~~~
ams6110
I tried a test patch of that once: gloss white rustoleum. It actually worked
for short term writing, but would absorb marker left on for more than a few
hours.

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rjurney
Thats great, its just too expensive for my taste at $4 a square foot.

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callmeed
What if your wall(s) have texture?

