KYLAN'S DIY WHITE BOARD CUPBOARD DOORS

I am all about organisation! Every chance I get to implement some sort of system to help keep the house running smoothly and everything organised I am all over it! We also have a pretty small house so any extra space is greatly appreciated around here!

Initially when we bought the house Kylan’s wardrobe doors were those old school sliding doors on cruddy runners that kept getting jammed or coming off the rails. This meant you could only access one side of the wardrobe at a time and it made for a small cramped space with limited accessibility.

When we re-carpeted we decided to take off the doors, remove the runners and turn the sliding doors into normal wardrobe doors that both open by adding some hinges to them. We ended up having no doors on his cupboards for around a year as it got pushed to the bottom of my to do list. I just never found the time to sand and paint them. Its not a very exciting job to do and I was making myself busy with all my other exciting projects I contour up.

When I finally got around to painting Kylan’s wardrobe doors a good year or so after his room got completed I thought why not make the most of them and do something creative yet functional!

I found this awesome magnetic paint which I applied to both doors. It took about 4-5 coats of it to build up enough strength to hold a magnet and some paper. The idea being that Kylan could hang up all of his artwork and things that he makes at school safe and sound inside his cupboard so that they are on display but not taking over his room!

I then had an epiphany!

Like a serious lightbulb over the head moment!

I had seen some amazing vinyl options available from Vinyl home including a white board covering.

So what would be better than magnetic doors? Magnetic doors which you can write on!!

I thought a bit about this and decided to leave some of the door uncovered in the whiteboard vinyl. The reason behind this was that I know how easily whiteboard marker rubs off onto things that touch it so I didn’t want his clothes hanging in the wardrobe rubbing up against it and getting dirty. So I left a patch next to his hanging section of his wardrobe without any. I painted this a shade of the aqua colour used throughout the room to add a big pop of colour to it.

Now here is a little trick I would like to share with you. The one thing I hate about painting is washing the brushes and rollers in between coats so that they don’t get dry and stiff. I have a simple solution here that means you only have to wash up once….when you are completely finished!

A plastic bag!

Yes thats right, all you need is a plastic bag, or even some glad wrap. You wrap up your paintbrush or roller which is covered in wet paint, trapping out all the air. It stays wet and doesn’t dry out while you wait to do your next coat of paint! YOU ARE WELCOME!!

So once I had finished painting the coloured section and allowed it to dry I gave the magnetic paint a light sand to smooth out any lumps and bumps and then got ready to do the whiteboard.

So as I mentioned before I purchased the Whiteboard contact paper from Vinyl Home. It is pretty much just like duraceal book covering and super easy to work with!

Vinyl Home

I ordered enough to cover both doors, as I hadn’t thought about the rubbing off on clothes when I ordered it so I have some leftover to play around with in other areas of the house! (watch this space)

So the first step was to roll it out and measure against the door and cut to size. I left about a 1-2cm overhang on each of the four sides when I cut it. It comes with guidelines on the back making cutting a straight line easy peasy.

Once I had cut the white board I went to hang it….and as usual with most of my DIY projects I encountered a small problem along the way. This problem was that you could see the black magnetic primer through the white board paper and as it wasn’t painted perfectly you could also see the patches where some was missing and it looked messy. So I had to pack away the white board paper and I used some old white paint I had lying around and did a quick coat of white paint over the black primer.

I did a quick test to make sure that the magnets were still working through the paint layer and had fingers and toes crossed that they would also still work through the added layer of vinyl. Then came applying the vinyl. This was actually very quick and easy to do! The trickiest part would just be getting it on straight initially so that when you get down to the bottom you haven’t run out of whiteboard on one side with a big over hang on the other. To ensure this didn’t happen I just peeled back and stuck a small amount down on the top and laid the rest against the door to check it was straight. It took a few attempts but I got there in the end.

The next part is exactly like covering a school book in duraceal (which I actually have a post on here) except instead of my handy plastic ruler, I used my cake smoother wrapped in a cloth just to ensure it didn’t scratch the vinyl. I thought this would be easier than the ruler as it had a handle. So i smoothed the vinyl down going from the inside out working any air bubbles out towards the edge. I did this all the way down in sections by slowly pulling back the backing paper until I got to the bottom.

I did the same thing on the bottom half of the other door which I found easier to photograph as I could fit it all in one close shot. I had about 1cm overhang on each side which I folded down and pressed down with the above fabulous invention of a tool.
(note after a few weeks I have had to cut the folded over bit which is on the outside of the door as it began peeling back from opening and closing the door and it rubbing against the other door)

Then I would suggest using a very sharp Stanley knife. I did not have one handy so I had to make do with the sharp scissors I had on hand. I cut along the bottom in line with the bottom of the door, and I would suggest doing the same along the left hand side in the above picture too to avoid it rubbing against the other door and peeling.

And there you have it! Multifunctional wardrobe doors!

The left door has his display area where he has his rugby medals proudly on display and his chores spelled out nice and clearly on the bottom of it so he never has to be reminded again (yeah right!) I am still thinking of a better way to write them up and get them ticked off as I don’t wanna be drawing up those little boxes each week!

And on the right he has free reign to do whatever he pleases!! He Has played around with writing up his weekly timetable but then found an old magnetic one of mine which he has taken ownership of to make more room to draw as his heart desires! (can you spy a cheeky cat putting cat hair all over his clean clothes!!)

He is adding more and more it it all the time…Now I just need to find some more cool magnets for him. Actually that just gave me an idea for a school holiday activity! DIY magnets on the agenda!