Every Tuesday is Kitchen Sink day at Living Behind the Curve.

We’re ready to take over the world now. All of our devious plans are shining in their color-coded glory for the whole world to see (if you define the whole world as our cat and anyone who happens to be peeking in our windows). The secret to our newly-found success is a wall-sized whiteboard that we hacked together for about $10.

The project was inspired by this article — we took the basic concept and tweaked it to our needs.

How to Make a Wall-Sized Whiteboard for about $10

• Go to your local hardware store, plumbing supply warehouse, or big box DIY retailer and buy a sheet of smooth white showerboard.
  We visited our local Lowe’s, and found that they sell standard 4′x8′ sheets for $10, and 32″x48″ sheets for $9, specifically marketed for use as dry-erase boards. We purchased the smaller size, because we did not have the room for 32 square feet of whiteboard space. (Some day, I will have a room covered in white board, where I can doodle away. Right now, however, the wall space in our dining-room-cum-office is limited.)
• Find a location, and decide how you’ll attach it.
  The original article involved laminating a sheet of shower board to another sheet of plywood. If you plant to lean your board up against the wall, this is probably a good idea; if you decide to hang it on the wall, however, it’s overkill. If you have drywall, some anchored screws will work just fine. Ours happens to be located on an exterior wall, and rather than break out the masonry bits, we used construction adhesive. The edges are temporarily affixed with masking tape while the adhesive cures.
• Ready, set, brainstorm! (And color!)
  You will need dry erase markers for this part, but you can pick those up just about anywhere. It’s a lot of fun to doodle on the board, and we now have one landing spot for all of our brain dumps.

There are some drawbacks, of course. The board doesn’t have a shelf for markers, although a small strip of molding would remedy that. It’s also not magnetic…but that’s what the fridge is for, right? A look at the price difference tells me it’s well-worth the trade-off, though: Staples sells a slightly smaller whiteboard (31″x48″) on their web site for $94.99.

If you’re not in the mood for a DIY project, or if permanently adhering something to your wall would cause your landlord to break out in hives, there are a few tricks you can use in an emergency brainstorming situation.

• Use a cleaner approach
  If your shower is made of showerboard, you can doodle on it with dry-erase markers. It’s temporary, but useful. (Don’t try this on marble, ceramic, or granite, though - the markers will stain.)
• Look outside
  Dry-erase markers also work on smooth glass. Hang a light-colored curtain or other fabric behind a glass storm door, and you have an instant whiteboard.
• Food for thought
  Many refrigerators have a non-porous surface that dry erase markers will do well on. I wouldn’t recommend using them on stainless steel, however.

A final note of caution: markers will eventually stain even the best dry-erase surfaces. You might want to do a test run in an inconspicuous spot before drawing on your appliances. Windex will normally clean up what a towel will not.