On: IdeaPaint Coming to 1,700 Lowe's Stores

[chopsueyar]

I've been using shower tile boards for almost a decade. I've always found 4' x 8' sheets for about $10 at Home Depot.

If you are going to spend the money on paint, get the black chalkboard paint. $15/qt for 100sqft...

http://www.lowes.com/pd_203261-4-007.0203261.005_0__?storeId...

With the black chalkboard, you can use many colors of chalk and pastels. How many colors can you use on a whiteboard?

[foob → chopsueyar]

I once had an office with chalkboard paint on all of the walls and it was terrible. The rough surface tears apart chalk much more quickly than a real chalkboard and the result is chalk dust absolutely everywhere. It would cover desks and laptops and we eventually decided that it wasn't worth using at all. Even if you love using chalk I highly recommend avoiding using chalkboard paint in a work environment at all costs.

[chopsueyar → foob]

Good to know. I have only used the chalkboard paint for residential projects. However, I have also found using a cheap roller, with any type of paint, will leave a rough surface. Wool (mohair too) rollers are more expensive, but provide a rather smooth surface (also Purdy brushes make a difference too). Plain drywall is fairly smooth.

There was a cool video from one of the first Kinect previews on Xbox Live and the family's living room had an area covered in black chalkboard paint with chalked designs all over it. Of course, I am sure this was not a real family, nor their real home.

[colanderman → chopsueyar]

> How many colors can you use on a whiteboard?

Uhh... the classroom I work in has at least 16 (bolds and pastels). I can't imagine even if chalk afforded more colors that they would be distinguishable enough to be useful in technical contexts.

[chopsueyar → colanderman]

Oil pastels are usually available in 24s,48s, and 72s but yes, I do think humans could distinguish between more than 16 colors.

Personally, I have never seen more than 8 colors of dry-erase marker that are legible on a whiteboard.

[colanderman → chopsueyar]

Oh I don't doubt that humans can distinguish between more than 16 colors. But white/blackboards are used mostly for sciences and business, not drawing. Trying to distinguish between turquoise and aqua in a graph or formula is difficult at best. (And I really wish infographic/map designers understood this concept.)

[chopsueyar → colanderman]

Businesses like restaurants and bars use it all the time...

http://www.chalkitupsigns.com/

[brianbreslin → chopsueyar]

I think he meant unable to distinguish many shades against the black chalkboard surface.

[firemanx → chopsueyar]

Responded, then saw your post - I don't know if the shower tile boards are the same melamine that we used, but they probably are.

We bought some chalkboard paint awhile back and discovered they now have a magnetized version as well, which may match how people use whiteboards more than non-magnetized melamine.

[louhong → chopsueyar]

Thats what I did - purchased white bathroom lining for about $15, used blue painters tape for the edges and mounted it on the wall.