Magnet Board gets a Second Chance

Last summer I read a wonderful blog post about making magnet boards for kids to match a non-magnetic stainless steel kitchen.  It was such a visually appealing and cheap idea that I ran wild with it and created four magnetic boards for my classroom.

Fast forward one year.  You can see in the first picture below how well one of my boards held up.  Or not.  And I'll be honest, it wasn't falling apart because of the kids!

My original materials:

large wood frame on clearance for $1 at Hobby Lobby

roll of metal sheeting from the roofing isle at Lowes

foam board from Hobby Lobby

hot glue

black spray paint

spray adhesive

I cut the metal sheeting to size using tin snips.  I cut the foam board to fit with a box cutter.  Then I used the spray adhesive to attach the metal to the foam.  The foam board helped the sheeting fit into the frame more snugly.  I spray painted the frame black and hot glued everything together.  

The finished product looked great!  I was so pleased.  But then the paint started flaking.  And the adhesive hanging tabs gave out.  My poor little magnetic board fell to the floor and fell apart.

I brought it home for the summer to try again.  I sanded off the black paint and the original stained finish.

One coat of primer.

A couple coats of white paint brushed on.

After the paint dried I replaced the sheeting and foam board.

This time I used a whole-lotta wood glue along the edges to keep everything in place.  The paint can held the sheeting flat until the glue was dry.

Forget adhesive tabs.  I'm nailing this sucker to the wall.  I used nails in the top corners (and got them started while the board was on the floor).  

Make sure it's straight...

Ta-da!

Kids Magnet Board

I hung it by the filing cabinet in our home office because Monkey often plays with magnets there anyway.

Oh, and by the way, this is a little sneak peak of the new wall color in the office, dining room, and kitchen.  It is Valspar's Smoke Infusion and I absolutely love it.  Below is a "before" picture I snagged off an old post.  That picture kinda makes me cringe now.  {shudder}

That's all for now.  Time to make the kiddos some lunch!