You know those women who just have it together? Maybe they’re moms, maybe they’re just CEOs, maybe they’re both? I imagine they have these beautiful large kitchens with lots of space for all the latest kitchen gadgets. They have a really cool coffee machine and actually a whole station in their kitchen dedicated to it. And near that station they have a command center. This command center is always tidy and have a dry erase board with important dates and maybe the weekly dinner menu. I am an Amazon Associate and I’ll make a small commission on any qualifying purchases made from links provided in this post. This doesn’t increase the item cost to you.
I’m not this mom, but I’d love to try! I also looked at dry erase boards and I know they can be pretty low in price but none of them appealed to me unless they were closer to $30. I didn’t really want to spend that kind of money especially because I didn’t know if I’d keep up with it. I got this genius idea to make a dry erase board out of a $1 frame from Dollar Tree and use paint chip samples from the hardware store. It was going to be a beautiful organized rainbow that didn’t break the bank.
I did already have some dry erase markers but I decided to invest in a magnetic eraser that I could put on my fridge.
Full disclosure. I ended up hating the paint chip idea! I was going to have to cut out 35 little squares and then line them up. I know I stress to not try to make a craft perfect but I knew if it wasn’t perfectly straight it was going to drive me bananas. At this point in the craft I needed to pivot.
I decided to make a calendar that I could cut out the squares with an exact-o knife and I could lay the paint chip samples behind this. I did lay my calendar on a self healing mat. You can download this calendar for free! You’ll find a link at the end of this post.
Okay, still kind of hating the paint chip thing. BUT I do have watercolor paper and watercolor paint on hand so I decided to go that route instead!! I know, so much pivoting. But crafting can be a journey and sometimes the journey is just as fun as the destination.
For watercolors you’ll want to have two waters. One is to be kept of “clean” water the whole time and the other is dirty water, which is what you use for rinsing out your brush when switching colors. I’d also recommend a paper towel if your painting is too wet or if you need to dry your brush a little. I have Crayola watercolors, but I linked a great set that includes paintbrushes earlier that isn’t Crayola. It has great reviews on Amazon!
I decided to go with a rainbow ombre effect. I wanted to keep it light in color so I could see what I was writing on my erase board. While painting this, sometimes it’d end up too dark so I’d simply add some of my clean water to my work and blot it with the paper towel to pick up the excess color and water!
Once I was happy with how it was looking I let it dry. This only took like 10 minutes, but if you’ve really saturated your sheet it’ll take longer. Once it was dry I used regular Elmer’s glue to my cut out calendar to adhere it to the watercolor work. I was careful to not go overboard with the glue so it wasn’t smooshing out everywhere. Then I trimmed it down to size to fit into my frame.
Once it was inside my frame I only had to worry about where to put it! I decided to place it on the back of my garage door in my kitchen. I used Command Picture hanging strips to hang my frame. I LOVE these things. I also ripped the frame prop up thing off the back. It was easy to take off by pulling it back and forth until the bracket came out. Btw if you love those macrame plant holders, I show you how to make them here.
There you have it! A $1 dry erase board! It’s functional and it’s art! I included this in the handmade holidays because I think it’d make a great gift to give to anyone who dreams of having that organized command center! It’s also a fun idea to gift to kids who like to doodle. Or adults who like to doodle. Speaking of gifting, you could still keep the costs pretty low if you were making this for multiple people and bought a multi pack of the dry erase markers because you could split those up for the recipients!
Do you think you’ll try the paint chip idea or will you paint with some watercolors? Maybe you’ll just print out the calendar below, trim it to size and call it a day? The choice is yours!
Be sure to tag us on socials if you make this! I love seeing everyone’s creations! If you loved this post please share it with a friend and consider, “buying me a coffee.” It helps keep the website ad free!
xoxo
-Robin
