Giant Magnet Board

FrankGrimes

I'm looking to get a really large magnet board for our kitchen, roughly something around 2.2m x1.3m or thereabouts.

It will be used for hanging over 100 fridge magnets we have collected from our travels and for sticking some family pics and in the middle we'll use it for a notice board, pinning things to the wall etc. (our fridge is built-in so no option there).

I've seen a few magnet boards but nothing that comes near this size or shape so I'm wondering if DIY would be best? Ideally, it would be whiteboard-like and also magnetic, but worst case if it was just magnetic, I could figure out a solution for making the centre writeable (e.g. overlay a smaller whiteboard inner). It would be ideal to find a material and/or finishing kit (e.g. edging and rivets/bolts) that actually look reasonably ok, but worst case most of the board can be covered by magnets and photos so not a deal breaker.

I'd appreciate any thoughts on materials to use for this, and particularly where to get them either in Dublin or shipped. Thanks

Tokyo

FrankGrimes wrote: »

Ideally, it would be whiteboard-like and also magnetic....

Most classroom whiteboards I've worked on will hold a magnet... they are deigned for pinning posters to when teaching kids, etc. So at risk of pointing out the obvious, why not buy a small whiteboard??

FrankGrimes

Hi mike_ie - that might well be the answer, but it's more that what I'm looking for will be around 1.7m x 1.0m (dimensions were overstated in OP) to fit into the space I have for it. If there's existing whiteboards roughly along those dimensions, I'd definitely have a look but it's more that I wasn't sure what search term to be using, large whiteboard didn't produce much good results on amazon.

I'd like to consider what DIY options there might be as a classroom whiteboard would look quite gammy in a kitchen, though I could always look at ways to do up or conceal the edges either with trimming or with photos overlapping the edges. The idea is for the whiteboard to be pretty much a living sketchbook of magnets (we've been collecting one in every city we visit for 10 years), postcards and photos and then a decent size area spare in the middle for taking notes.

I had some small whiteboards from Woodies for just the magnets before but the weight of the magnets was too much for them as they were quite flimsy. The wall where we want to put this is plasterboard blobbed onto a concrete block wall so there is a gap between plasterboard and the concrete and it's pretty flaky concrete so drilling anchors into the concrete can be problematic. So the other part I was going to look for advice on is what fixings to use for whatever whiteboard I end up with.

Tokyo

If you want an off-the-shelf solution, then ring around the office suppliers - 1.7m x 1.0m seems close enough in size to some of the smaller whiteboards I've worked on in offices and classrooms. IF you're looking for a DIY solution, then all you really need is some flat sheet steel - any sheet metal supplier should be able to supply it in whatever size you'd like. To make it look the part, cover it in white adhesive plastic laminate or white adhesive shower liner, and frame it with some timber beading. How you want it to look is entirely up to you.

Tokyo

God, loathe as I am to admit this, pinterest is a pretty good place to go if you want to come up with interesting ways to create displays like the one you want to make, get ideas for framing, etc.... Here's what a search for magnetic boards threw back....

http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins...rd&rs=ac&len=8

A few of the boards also have DIY instructions attached, by the looks of it..