I never pictured myself painting a wall in our house black, let alone doing it at 5am. But that’s what I found myself doing two weeks ago. Allow me to explain.
When our postcard wall moved into place last week, it meant our much loved wallflowers above the desk had to be relocated…
… well, some stayed in place when we decided we liked leaning a few on the shelves of our postcard wall– but the rest needed a new home.
Well, they didn’t go far. We decided to move them just one wall over to the small space under the office/guest room/playroom’s one and only big window.
Why? That’s probably best explained by answering the “how” first. Instead of relying on the special nails that came with our magnetic wallflower kit- which firmly affix the arrangement in one spot thanks to the magnet-backed flowers which stick to the magnetized nail heads- we decided to try something new: magnetic paint (note: some of the new wallflower kits snap instead of being magnetized). We thought magnetic paint would be just the thing for this project since we’d been dying to try it for years and were just waiting for the right project. We often wondered if the rumors were true- did it really work? We were about to find out.
See, by creating a large magnetic canvas we could design a spot where the wallflowers could be displayed, but instead of being limited to the fixed spots where we placed the magnetic pins in the wall, this time the wallflowers (along with any other magnets) could easily be moved around into an infinite number of fun formations, adding a nice element of “play” to our office/guest room/playroom- especially once Clara becomes mobile enough to move them around. And they’re definitely at a kid-friendly height!
Luckily the magnetic paint rumors were true. Well, mostly – it’s actually magnetic primer. We found this $21 quart of Rust-oleum Magnetic Latex Primer at Home Depot (next to things like chalkboard paint, dry erase paint, and glow-in-the-dark paint). Update: Here’s an affiliate link to it over on Amazon if you can’t find it in stores.
Oh and before heading home we noticed the instructions actually suggested having it shaken by the store’s paint department to help keep the iron particles from settling on the bottom – so don’t forget to shake yours like crazy! The instructions also suggested two or three thin coats to achieve the best results as opposed to one or two thick and gloppy ones. Good to know.
Well… we did seven.
And we made sure they were all extremely thin so there wasn’t any bump or delineation where the magnetic paint started or ended. Maybe four extra applications were overkill, but we were determined to make this stuff work. Plus I realized only after coat number two or three that I was supposed to be vigorously stirring between each application. Oops. But since the coats dried really fast it only took me an evening, a morning, and one random 5am painting session to apply all seven (Clara had woken us up for a surprise feeding- she usually sleeps from around 10pm to 9am!- so I figured I’d be productive while Sherry sleepily nursed her). And ultimately… drumroll please… it worked. Woo hoo!
Well, it mostly worked. After each coat I tested variously sized wallflowers to see if they would stay up. The smallest sizes stuck almost immediately but despite my persistence I never could get the larger ones to stay in one spot (they’d just slide down the wall, hit the baseboard, and fall off). So we’d say that magnetic primer works, but not with anything terribly heavy. Now you know why some ended up on the postcard shelves. Oh well – happy accident.
But in the good news category, despite the fact that we had just painted a huge black spot on our wall – it barely took two coats to cover it up completely with the original wall color (Glidden’s Sand White). Phew. Heart attack averted. And it didn’t seem to lose any of the magnetic attraction when covered with other non-magnetic paint. It’s also 100% non-toxic and kid-safe when dry (obviously it’s not safe for a kid to drink it in liquid form). We did keep Clara out of the room with the windows open and a fan on for the full drying period (and about three days after that since we happened to be out of town for the weekend anyway) just to be safe.
Even though we couldn’t get all of the wallflowers to stick, we’re actually really happy with how it turned out. And we can’t wait to find some other fun magnets to put up there so Clara can play with them when she’s a bit older. Speaking of which – does anyone know where we could find an all-white set of those alphabet magnets? We googled around for a while with no luck- and we think they would be a fun and educational addition to the little slices of “playroom” that we’re trying to squeeze into this small space for our favorite little girl.
Has anyone else tried magnetic primer? Or any of those other wacky chalkboard/dry erase/glow-in-the-dark paints? We’d love to know what you guys thought about using those newfangled products. Did they work? Were they messy or hard to apply? Spill the beans.
Psst- Wanna follow the entire office/guest bedroom/playroom makeover? Click here for the intro post, here to read about the big sleeper sofa hunt, here for the DIY desk play-by-play, here for the homemade light fixture project, here for our hacked Ikea bookcase, here for the file storage we built, here for how we squeezed in some toy storage, here for how we picked out some DIY art that we could agree on, here for how we wrangled our wires, and here for the play-by-play of creating our postcard art wall.
I can’t remember the exact name of the clay, but they sell it at craft stores. Its the kind that you bake and it hardens. My kids love making magnets out of them. You could probably find some minature alphabet cookie cutters and make your own. Easy, cute and inexpensive.
We did a magnetic chalkboard in our daughter’s room. None of the standard bright colored plastic letters stick to the wall- even though they are very light. What seems to stick best are flat sheet magnets (like those magnetic poetry words) So maybe you could buy a magnetic sheet page- glue white paper to it and then cut out letters.
Or this place has a magnetic sheet in white-
http://www.magnetking.com/
Great advice Christina! We’ll definitely look into it!
xo,
s
i know you love “all white” but when it comes to things like magnets, go for the color. if there is one thing i have learned as a mom so far, sometimes you have to throw taste and style to the wind and go for the brightest colored object when it comes to toys. Lesson learned after spending $50 on a beige organic cotton bouncy seat only to find that my daughter preferred the $15 red/yellow/blue Walmart brand seat 1000 times more.
oops…didnt read all the comments first before posting. sorry about that. didnt mean to sound like i was beating a dead horse.
Have you seen this spray paint from Krylon? http://www.krylon.com/products/h2o_latex/
It is advertised as being eco-conscious and non-toxic latex spray paint.
Another possibility is make your own spray paint with this:
http://www.dickblick.com/products/preval-sprayer/?wmcp=google&wmcid=products&wmckw=25003-0200-1527
Very Cool!
What a great idea!
I love the little wall. It’s so cool that Clara will be able to play there. We too used the magnetic primer in my office: http://ourhumbleabowed.wordpress.com/2010/06/02/office-progress-2/ We used the entire can and got 7 or 8 coats and the heaviest thing I can attach are some IKEA spice jars with office supplies. It does sort of depend on their placement, too. It seems some areas maybe got more of the iron particles so it’s stronger there? I don’t know exactly, but if you move the flowers around, they may stick in some places…
Hey Amanda,
We did notice that actually! Isn’t that weird?
xo,
s
You could just buy white stickers of the alphabet and mount them on small (not too small… ie choking hazard) tiles or wood blocks and attach magnets to the back. Super easy.
Or you could use oversized scrabble tiles… I know I’ve seen them around at some point, and just attach magnets to the back. They aren’t white but they are neutral coloured.
These aren’t white but they might match your postcard theme going on above your desk. http://www.poshchicago.com/product.asp?name=ABC-Magnets—English&pfid=PSH01615
You could make your own set! Just glue fabric over cardstock letters of your choice and attatch those really thin magnets onto the back (:
This is such as awesome idea! Really glad to know that you can cover it with paint to conceal the the black, I was a little worried when I saw the sloppiness of it and and knew it wasn’t like you guys to be that way, but now I understand. Great approach, I will have to recommend this to friends with little ones!
I painted an entire magnetic/chalkboard wall in our home office… it was messy, expensive, & not as smooth as I had expected… but we REALLY wanted the wall to hold notes and such… so, small, ultra-light magnets stay up on the wall… BUT they don’t hold ANYTHING! too bad…
The chalkboard works great though, so it wasn’t a total loss!
On a slightly different magnet note, I wanted to share what my sister did on her fridge. She found pictures of friends and family members and affixed them to the thin, adhesive sheets of magnet. (You can usually find it at Michaels.) It’s good to choose pics where people’s heads and faces are sufficiently large. Next she clips them out of the magnet material so only the head remains as a magnet. Occasionally she cuts out a body as well and people love to rearrange the people and put them on funny bodies, etc. It’s a really fun, easy project and when Clara gets a bit older I’m sure she’ll get excited pointing out pictures of Grandma and Grandma, Aunts and Uncles, etc.
This might not be the look you’re going for in the office, but it might be perfect for the fridge. :)
We used chalkboard paint in our playroom to make a chalkboard for our kiddos. We just framed out a square with painters tape and painted right over the existing color. I think it took 3-4 coats. After it was dry, we framed it out with some leftover white trim we had (window trim I think), and we had a fun and attractive chalkboard for the kids to play school with :)
The glow in the dark paint didn’t work for us, but we LOVE the chalkboard paint! Several years ago, I took a scratched old Winnie the Pooh table and painted it white and did chalkboard paint for the top. It was perfect – our daughter could sit and draw all over it.
I’ve always thought this idea sounded like fun – a few years ago I heard that one of the BIG stars had a guest bathroom completely painted in chalkboard paint, and had containers of different colored chalk in there for guests to leave messages. Cool idea!
Sounds like a great DIY….we had a alphabet set made of birch, I think. It was very lightweight so would stick no problem…you’d have to make sure the magnets on the back were very secure…the selfsticking is not sticking enough for me. Maybe the magnetic primer on the letters?? Craft stores have the letters made out of lightweight wood…you could paint them however you’d like
PS..love the blog…you inspired me to make my first trip to Ikea in Woodbridge…I’m hooked
I have a magnetic wall with the same primer, and while normal magnets work, the rare earth ones will hold up heavy stuff.
Thanks for the tip Laurie!
xo,
s
A few nice-looking alphabets:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/52296144/set-of-26-jennski-alphabet-magnets?ref=sr_gallery_30&ga_search_query=magnets+alphabet&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_page=&order=&includes%5B%5D=tags&includes%5B%5D=title
http://www.etsy.com/listing/41849327/round-wood-alphabet-discs?ref=sr_gallery_2&ga_search_query=magnets+alphabet&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_page=5&order=&includes%5B%5D=tags&includes%5B%5D=title
http://www.etsy.com/listing/42510246/alphabet-vintage-dictionary-magnet-set
White seems to be hard to find.
Do the alphabet letters have to be all white? I know that is your favorite color, but babies and children are stimulated by bright colors. You could maybe go with one or two primary colors, with some white interspersed in… but all white seems boring for a baby.
Just my assvice, though – definitely if you want all white, and have your heart set on it, by all means go for it! :-)
I will do some internet searching. I am a crafting queen, too, and could come up with a way to DIY.
Hey Snickersnack Katie,
Thanks for the tip! We’ve actually thought about that but we plan to teach her colors in another way by bringing in flash cards and colorful childrens blocks. Stay tuned for those details sometime soon!
xo,
s
Great job! You’re right–Clara will love having that little space for magnets and play items. We’re fans of magnetic paint as well. We inherited an indestructible and retro-cute wooden kitchen set from my father-in-law’s primary school, and before we repainted it, we used the magnetic paint on the fridge door. Our kids (including a Clara!) love to stick notes, pictures, magnetic letters, etc. on their fridge, just like a grown-up. (Well, except that we don’t have magnets on our stainless fridge anymore, but I digress.) She’ll be at that stage before you know it!
You can buy sheets of magnetic “paper”. (The size I use is equal to a business card, but I am sure you can buy it bigger, cut it down or whatever) There’s a piece of waxy paper that peels off revealing a sticky side. You could DIY basically anything with your mad photoshop skillz and stick it on. I use it all the time in my classroom, pics of the kids word sorts, etc. You’d be able to make bigger things she an peel off, but it wouldn’t be as 3-d as an alphabet set. Good luck!
I love the idea of chalkboard spray paint. My parents painted almost an entire wall with chalkboard paint in my brothers room. (painted to about six feet up with a ten foot ceiling and put trim around it. It was such a great thing when we were little and as the little sister I remember often asking to be allowed to draw on it.
Recently I painted the glass on a cheap but pretty dollar store frame with black chalkboard paint. It’s awesome for write quotes and doing little drawings on for changeable artwork. The only thing that can get bothersome is the chalk dust using a chalkboard creates (I remember my brothers floor having a coating of chalk dust under the board).
We’ve had the same experience with magnetic paint. It works for very light materials, and that’s about it, even when it’s done very carefully. :( We also bought rustoleum. I wonder if there is a better product on the market? We actually painted a magnet board under chalkboard paint for our kids. It just didn’t work. :( Sadness. Live and learn, right?
I painted my kitchen door with magnetic paint and covered it with chalkboard paint. Same problem you had – small things stick, heavy, larger stuff…no.
I’m thinking you’d probably have to paint on 10 or so coats for it to hold heavier stuff.
WOW…why did the pics of my sons show up?? I am digging all the white you use…just not tidy enough to use it in my house :) I think white letters will be fine…kiddos get plenty of colorful stimulation. As the baby gets older look into a felt board….my sons love it
That’s so cool! You guys are so clever.
I found this website which shows what painted-white alphabet magnets look like.
http://moodygirlprojects.blogspot.com/2010/02/alphabet-magnets-made-over.html
Here is a non-toxic paint for plastics. All Krylon paints are apparently non-toxic.
http://www.krylon.com/products/fusion_for_plastic/
you could ask someone on etsy to make the letters:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/51117617/fun-colorful-lowercase-alphabet-magnet?ref=v1_other_1
http://www.etsy.com/listing/51647064/stuffed-felt-alphabet-letter-set-in-a?ref=sr_gallery_35&ga_search_query=felt+alphabet&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_page=&order=&includes%5B%5D=tags&includes%5B%5D=title
though some might not put a magnet in them because the mmagnet could harm the child…
I love the magnetic paint that’s so nifty! We did a chalkboard wall (well two walls) in our kitchen area, it’s fun to write the grocery list on, and my husband drew our family “portrait” on one of them as well
Here are the pottery barn stainless steel alphabet magnets:
http://www.potterybarn.com/products/stainless-steel-kitchen-accessories/popup/more-views.html?active=s11
First, let me say I love your blog! Second, (kind of off topic) how do you get Clara to sleep all night? My daughter is around the same age, and she sleeps from about 10:30-5:30. She does take some lengthy naps during the day. I would die for 10-9.
Nicole- We really think that every baby is different! All throughout my pregnancy Clara was super active during the day and virtually undetectable at night (she slept when I slept- no 3am kicks like my friends mentioned). So I think she’s always just been a sleep-at-night baby. Even in the nursery at the hospital the nurses had to wake her up at feeding time and they’d bring her to me all groggy (she often tried to sleep through those feedings and I struggled to tickle her and keep her awake). Our only advice, other than just seeing what kind of baby you end up with and embracing that, would be differentiating night sleep and daytime naps (ex: make sure the room is extremely dark overnight, play a sound machine for the baby, create a bedtime routine to wind the baby down the same way every day). Doing these things quickly had Clara going longer and longer stretches even though she’s breastfed (she does feed extremely frequently at night before we put her to bed – like nearly every hour from 7-10). Hope it helps!
Patti- Yup, it’s completely 100% undetectable and matches exactly. It’s flat paint so that’s why it was so easy to touch up. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Good for you that Clara’s such a good sleeper. My twin boys were too .. nobody wanted to believe that they slept thru the night as infants but they did! Believe me, they gave me other challenges but I was blessed with sleep! Anyway, wanted to ask, I can’t tell from the picture, but can you see where you painted over the magnetic primer or does it match the rest of the wall exactly. Is it a flat paint? I didn’t have success touching up a wall in my basement (you could see that the area was re-painted) but that was semi-gloss. Thanks!
I’ve been dying to take my chalkboard paint for a test run recently, and I’ve got two projects in mind.
I didn’t know that magnetic primer existed, but now that I do, this will be the first few coats, and THEN I’ll try to cover it with the chalkboard paint. It will be just another fun thing to add to my project list. Very clever!
Sorry, this link works better:
http://www.potterybarn.com/products/stainless-steel-kitchen-accessories/?pkey=x|4|1||10|magnet||0&cm_src=SCH
I did chalkboard paint on the door in my dining room. I don’t have kids yet, but it sure is a great place to leave a honey-do list!
I just used the Rustoleum Tub & Tile refinishing paint this past weekend on the pink tile in my shower. 4 coats later and a contact buzz, it looks great. I would suggest using a foam roller to avoid brush marks. Also, the paint seems to have flavored some cheese puffs in had wrapped in 2 bags in my fridge. It’s a really powerful smell.
I painted an entire wall with the magnetic paint but did not have such good luck with it holding my flower magnets. Most of them just slid down the wall. A bit disappointing. Glad you had better luck.
All white letters for Clara? I know all the kiddie stuff and colors can get overwhelming but here’s a time I think you should throw the design asthetic out the window and let Clara have fun with color. My little girl groups all her letters by color and the different colors have been a wonderful tool for teaching her all the colors. Also, having a slightly less boring set of alphabet magnets will keep Clara occupied longer…which is exactly what you want while you’re trying to get things done in the office.
Good luck!
Hey Amy,
Thanks for the tip! We’ve actually thought about that but we plan to teach her colors in another way by bringing in flash cards and colorful childrens blocks. Stay tuned for those details sometime soon!
xo,
s
Tons of fun tutorials out there for magnetic letters…
http://angieasplund.blogspot.com/2009/01/magnetic-abcs-tutorial.html – you could pick out different neutral fabrics for this one and add some additional interest and texture to the area.
I’ve also seen cute ones where people have sewn softie letters and added magnets.
Wood letters would be nice too.
Wow! This is so neat, I think I’d heard of magnetic paint before, but never a primer. I love that it looks just like any other part of the wall in the room, but has an extra hidden function. I wonder if you could buy magnetic tape and put it on paintings/frames, so that you don’t need to put holes in the wall each time you want to move something. Any thoughts?
Hey Laura,
It’s a possibility although we’re not sure the magnets could hold up the weight of the frames since our bigger wallflowers didn’t stick. We have heard of people using heavy-duty velcro in the way that you described though!
xo,
s
You could buy the small wooden letters at Michaels and glue magnets to them?
You have to be really careful about the magnets, especially the rare earth ones! i heard that if kids swallow them (the super strong rare earth ones), potentially two magnets can perforate organs/lining, etc! so when you attach the magnets, on your DIY letters, be extra careful that they are secure and won’t come off when a little pressure is applied.
Great point Judy! We like the idea of magnetic sheets with numbers and letter punched out since nothing can pop off and be ingested. Safety first!
xo,
s
I love this idea! Unfortunately, by the time I fell in love with the wallflowers they no longer used magnets! So mine sit in a box because I’m too afraid to poke holes in my walls, plus they won’t follow me to college because we’re not allowed to poke holes in our walls! But I still love them :)
I did a magnetic paint/chalkboard wall in my kitchen. I didn’t talk much about the magnetic aspect but here is a link: http://www.bowloforanges.org/2009/10/in-which-hard-work-pays-off.html …I also found the hold to be fairly weak, so at my husbands advice I bought a second can and so did many layers. Now it holds REALLY well! The earth magnets are really strong and I’ve made a few things using those for my son to play with. As for the alphabet, I haven’t seen a white set online but randomly enough I DID see a set last night at the Safeway grocery store… actually they were glow in the dark but in the light they just look white. Also I know that any craft store sells small wooden letter cutouts… you could paint them white and attach a magnet? Anyway, love how your office is coming along!
I didn’t read all the comments so sorry if this was already suggested but you could make your own like this http://creativeoutletdesigns.blogspot.com/2007/10/diy-fridge-magnets-and-pushpins.html using photoshop and design fun letters, shapes and other learning things like cute animals etc. I would use the larger sized glass so you can actual see the letters and they would be much less a choking hazard that way too. I think they make thin lightweight square plexy ones too?
On a slightly unrelated note,
Do you know of any online source to get those big metal or wood letters? I think you have a silver “P”….I find the Restoration hardware & Anthro ones a little too pricy!
Thanks!
Hey Andrea P,
Ours is actually from Pottery Barn (on clearance after Christmas) but you might have luck at Urban Outfitters or on eBay? Good luck!
xo,
s
What a great idea! We have those flowers in kiwi green on my daughter’s walls. I hate how we now have so many little holes… when we eventually redo her room, a magnetic section is a great idea – for the flowers and some letters too. Awesome, love you guys!!
What an awesome idea! I’ve seen the chalkboard paint in some fun places, but this is the first magnetic wall post I’ve seen. So fun!! I’ll have to keep this one in mind for our someday kids!
Any thoughts on how to de-magnetize the wall if you ever wanted to?
Hey Nicole,
No idea, but we’ve heard that it doesn’t mess with electronics or credit cards (not strong enough) so we’re not sure that undoing it would ever be dire anyway. Hope it helps!
xo,
s