This hollowed out volcano is not going to decorate itself

March 11, 2014 5:59 PM

I am trying to get my act together. I have an average sized apartment room wall. I want to use it to plan world domination! Well really the domination of my next few years of goals and tasks. Please give me cool or creative ideas for a way to have a huge display of multiple years of calendar, lists and reminders, and events and goals. The only catch is that I cannot repaint or damage the wall in a major way. Long-winded details inside.

I would love to be able to see a good 3 years worth of calendar, for full planning purposes. Also to gaze at the wall every so often and bellow a maniacal laugh when I see that I need to pick up my dry cleaning next week and look for restaurant coupons. My budget for this project is flexible if the idea is so awesome it just has to be done. All ideas welcome.

Giant piece of paper that I pin to the wall, and write on that? Affix a screen to the wall that I can pull down, point to like a general explaining a plan of attack and then roll up? Take dozens of pieces of 8x11 paper and tape them to the wall like Leonard in Memento? Buy an old giant flip chalkboard like the one Indiana Jones used to draw the Ark in Raiders?

I am a lowly flat dweller, so I have to take it with me when I move. I'm pretty crafty so I can do cutting and drawing, but I do like any specifics you have in mind in terms of tools, pencils, adhesives and that sort of thing. Any ideas? You will totally get consideration as a henchperson.

posted by cashman to Home & Garden (14 answers total)

Huge sheets of dry-erase boards. I think the least expensive is some kind of shower lining board from Home Depot that runs about $35 bucks a sheet. Check google.
posted by raisingsand at 6:09 PM on March 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

I concur. Whiteboard.
posted by jessamyn at 6:13 PM on March 11, 2014 [2 favorites]

What if you were to make a giant freestanding divider wall, but put it flush against the wall. Now you have a canvas to post stuff. You could cheaply acquire materials at the hardware store.

Maybe paint it with chalkboard paint so you can write all over it with colored chalk. You can change up the lists and art around them as much as you want!

However, on one side, I would post a giant dry erase calendar, they make them as year at a glance and have them at most office supply stores in poster form.
posted by floweredfish at 6:16 PM on March 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

We did the giant piece of paper taped to wall to do a homeschooling project. We were having our sons fill out a timeline on a larger time scale and with more detail than you typically see in books.

Though I think that would not be sufficient as a stand-alone answer for your proposed project. I think it might work well for some overarching giant Gantt Chart showing long term plans (a Gantt Chart should be familiar to you if you ever watched any home rehab shows -- the construction lead usually has one in his office showing deadlines and order of events) but I think you would need to supplement with something erasable and more detailed as a minimum.
posted by Michele in California at 6:25 PM on March 11, 2014

I think dry erase board is pretty good, but a better solution would be to have your walls lined with homasote, which not only acts as a substrate for bulletin board type uses, but will also help with soundproofing.

If you covered all your walls with homasote, you could hang dry erase boards, calendars, and other things on that, making everything easy to rearrange as things change.

I also like the chalkboard paint idea -- maybe for smaller walls not worth having homasote installed on?
posted by Sara C. at 6:35 PM on March 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

I have this giant full year calendar on my wall right now. I attached it using those velcro command hook frame hanging things. It's pretty rad, and I can have it horizontal on one side and vertical if I decide I need different wall configuration. You could get one for the current year to supplement the future years' planning, as you enter the more concrete stages of your world domination and all. I'm using wet erase markers (not dry erase) which makes it better in case I accidentally lean or whatever. Alternatively you can just bogart the design idea from it for your own giant multi-year calendar.

I have a friend who is an elementary school teacher and she pretty much has a world domination (um, 5th grade domination) wall. She's got multiple calendars for the same year for different aspects, and then accordion folders that are all color coded for different purposes (forms, permission slips, emergency plans, different subjects, etc), and big zones delineated with colored tape that are for visualizing things (teaching is dark magic, I'm lead to understand) and to design seating charts with little postits representating every student. It makes her living room look like a crazy person lives there, especially if she breaks out the yarn, but damn, it works. I don't know anybody who is more on top of and into their lives than her.
posted by Mizu at 6:36 PM on March 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

Also, note that just about anything you can laminate can become a dry erase board.

Also mirrors.
posted by Sara C. at 6:38 PM on March 11, 2014

You are going to need a lot of red string.
posted by Lou Stuells at 6:42 PM on March 11, 2014 [2 favorites]

I'm voting for giant flip chalkboard; those things are RAD!
posted by lilnublet at 8:01 PM on March 11, 2014

I'd want to try a magnetic clip board. Home supply centres sell thin steel sheets that can be bent to form ductwork. I'd frame several and hang them together. They'd probably look better with a coat of paint. (I'm assuming the sheet steel is magnetic)
posted by bonobothegreat at 8:03 PM on March 11, 2014

Paint one of bonobothegreat's magnetic steel sheets with chalkboard paint!
posted by DisreputableDog at 10:00 PM on March 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

Whiteyboard is a stick on whiteboard, so that might be an option if you are wanting to draw on it. I'd suggest "sticky putty" or whatever you called it in elementary school for attaching pictures/things to whiteboard or walls. (there's a large variety available, link was just the first result.

Alternate suggestion: If you have a largeish tv, get a cheap android tablet that has hdmi out, or an old netbook with video out and do a big display you can pull up on there.
posted by HermitDog at 12:03 AM on March 12, 2014

How about rolls of cork?

Now you have a giant bulletin board and you can chart and graph and add actual calendars (like those huge ones for your desk at work).

Cork is cheap, cheerful and attractive.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 7:05 AM on March 12, 2014

Custom printed giant white board?

Pottery barn has a line of wall hanging office organizer pieces.
posted by okieangel at 11:48 AM on March 12, 2014