Two of today’s most popular options for creating writable surfaces in the home are whiteboard paint and chalkboard paint. Do-it-yourselfers who’ve decided to turn their homes into interactive living, working, and learning environments have taken the first step. The next step is deciding which of these coatings to use.
With such a wide range of writable paint products today, it can take time to figure out which one will best suit your needs. Should you go with a bright-looking, up-to-date whiteboard surface or possibly a darker, old-school chalkboard look? In the following post, we’ll provide some key facts that will help you choose between whiteboard paint and chalkboard paint to apply to your home.
Ease of Application
Whiteboard paint is easy to install, requires only one coat, and features a smooth, effortless application process. Thus, DIY enthusiasts can achieve a professional-looking finish with minimal outlay of time and energy when creating a top-quality whiteboard painted wall. After just 48 hours of dry time, an attractive writable whiteboard surface is ready to use for an endless array of practical and creative tasks.
By applying only one coat of whiteboard paint and allowing only a two-day drying period, you can avoid a lot of lost time during and after application. Homeowners also only need to pay for the exact amount of paint they need to produce a cost-effective, long-lasting, and easily cleaned whiteboard wall.
With chalkboard paint, however, application typically requires two or more coats and more intensive, time-consuming preparation, such as thorough sanding between successive coats and curing the surface with chalk after drying. Also, the dry time for chalkboard paint is a full three days, which takes more time out of users’ household schedules.
Versatility in Design and Color
Whiteboard paint’s clear version can be applied over a virtually infinite range of paint colors, allowing DIY enthusiasts to customize their projects according to their tastes and preferences. The coating’s versatility will enable you to create attractive, colorful, interactive surfaces with unlimited utility. Some of our clients have transformed the look and functionality of whole rooms with whiteboard paint, creating vast writing surfaces for both practical tasks and creative expression. Using whiteboard paint, you can fashion a surface with a dazzling white finish that merges effortlessly with the rest of your interior when not in use. This feature allows you to enjoy the many benefits of having a writable wall with minimal effect on your home’s existing look and feel.
Chalkboard paint, however, is traditionally limited to dark colors, offering less flexibility with respect to design and color customization. A chalkboard painted wall’s matte finish in black, forest green, or some other dark shade causes it to stand out noticeably in a room, making it like an obtrusive presence.
For this reason, one writer on a popular real estate website says that when people want to apply chalkboard paint in a large space such as a kitchen or family room, they should use it only to create an accent and not have it be the room’s main focal point. Thus, when applying chalkboard paint, it’s best to stick to just one small wall or part of a wall, like the space behind the kitchen table, to achieve a more inconspicuous look. The effect can be overwhelmingly dark and somber when larger room areas are coated with chalkboard paint.
Adaptability to Various Surfaces
Whiteboard paint is adaptable for use on a wide range of surfaces, including walls, furniture items, cabinets, countertops, and doors. By using whiteboard paint, DIY enthusiasts can transform many elements of their interior space into interactive, highly functional writing canvases requiring minimal care and lasting for ten-plus years without the need for replacement.
On the other hand, while chalkboard paint may be applied to various surfaces, its finish reveals more texture than whiteboard paint, thus limiting its adaptability when you’re looking for a completely smooth writing surface.
Elegant Functionality
Beyond their outstanding aesthetic qualities, elegant-looking whiteboard painted walls serve countless practical functions in the home, allowing for easy note-taking, planning, and other household tasks. Thus, a DIY whiteboard wall is visually appealing and highly serviceable for the entire family.
Chalkboard paint, in contrast, may be okay to use for creating artworks such as colored chalk drawings, but its perpetually smudged appearance makes practical uses more difficult. For instance, content on chalkboard walls can be hard to read due to the haze of chalk dust that’s always present in the background unless regular, intense cleaning is done.
Cleanliness and Maintenance
Whiteboard painted walls are easy to clean with a dampened microfiber cloth, while maintaining a reliably fresh, polished look, and offering long-lasting, trouble-free service. Whiteboard painted surfaces remain tidy and writable for their entire lifetime, without having to address the constant issue of chalk dust residue on the surface and hazardous chalk dust particles permeating the room.
With chalkboard paint, regular cleaning is required to maintain a neat appearance and address the chalk dust that fills the air, settles on furniture and people, and produces a smudged look all over the chalkboard surface. Also, any roughness that exists, like the texture caused by a brush or roller when applying chalkboard paint, will capture chalk marker or chalk pen residue, which can’t be easily removed.
And, since chalkboard painted surfaces are not heat cured, they absorb this residue and leave behind “ghosts” or traces of lines from previous text and drawings that can only be eliminated by repainting. Chalk markers and pens are meant to be used only on traditional factory-finished chalkboards with highly smooth surfaces.
Regarding the cleanability of chalkboard paint, one online user wrote that before applying the paint, he applied a primer and then prepped the surface. After finishing this procedure, which took almost two weeks, he applied the chalkboard paint, and upon drying, his chalkboard wall was nearly impossible to erase with standard chalk erasers. The only way he could remove old chalk markings from the wall and make it clean enough to write on again was to wash the board thoroughly. The user added that although he was using high-quality chalk, he could only partially erase the markings from his chalkboard painted wall, and ended up replacing it. He concluded by saying, “If you value your time, don’t waste it buying this .”
Longevity and Durability
Whiteboard painted walls are extremely tough and resistant to wear, providing a long-lasting solution for DIY projects. The sturdy painted surfaces resist scratching and denting and come with a ten-year money-back warranty against yellowing, peeling, and cracking.
On the other hand, chalkboard paint often requires frequent touch-ups or refinishing due to surface imperfections and signs of wear that impact long-term durability. As one online paint dealer states, for intense use, it may be necessary to add a fresh coat of chalkboard paint approximately every six months.
Integration with Technology
Whiteboard paint allows users to easily integrate technology, such as interactive projectors and other digital devices, with a whiteboard painted surface, thus enhancing the tech-oriented aspects of DIY projects. When a whiteboard wall’s bright white surface is written on with dark-colored low-odor markers, the resulting text is extremely easy to read when electronically transmitted to computer or laptop screens.
In contrast, chalkboard paint needs more seamless integration with the technology that whiteboard paint offers, thus limiting its potential for the high-tech communication that today’s users demand. For example, the typically dark surfaces of chalkboard painted walls are less suitable for use in remote meeting presentations. This is so because when white chalk is used to write on a dark-colored chalkboard, the dark background causes dilated pupils and decreased vision, making the content hard to read. This effect is amplified in remote meetings, where participants try to make out small text on their computer or laptop screens.
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