Weird/fun prompt—how much marginal problem-solving capacity could you create by making good domestic whiteboards way more viable?
Domestic whiteboards are usually either too small or too obtrusive. There's rarely enough unbroken wall space; free-standing boards eat huge sqftage.
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A ceiling-mounted retractable solution is appealing, but it seems hard to get the rigidity you'd need.
Switchable glass seems promising. It's available as an aftermarket film @ ~$50/sqft. But it'd feel obtrusive to leave writing up for days, though, which is no good.
…AR? :/
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Whiteboards—particularly whiteboards persistent and big enough to accumulate writing for many days—create a change in consciousness! I straight-up think different thoughts when one's present. Doubly true in a collaborative situation.
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Lots of people mentioned putting whiteboards in their home offices, but I think if you really did this right, you would be able to have one on demand in your living room, for spontaneous use when conversation turned in that direction.
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One clear barrier to having domestic whiteboards anywhere but home office seems to be that one can hide them on demand. Persistent scribbles on an enormous surface in a living space are too visually noisy.
And yet persistence is important. Tough tension.
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Curtains seem like a good solution though I suspect few homes can sacrifice that much precious contiguous wall space.
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brilliantly suggests: use the back faces of closet and pocket doors. Easy huge retractable domestic whiteboards! Seems broadly deployable.
e.g. We've got pocket bedroom doors (normally hidden). I can slap some melamine on these to make a 64x80" retractable whiteboard!
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Follow-up one year later—this has been working great! I used this cut-to-size whiteboard film from Post-it: amazon.com/gp/product/B06.
No issues yet with stains or un-erasable ink.
I ended up putting it on the other side of the door from the first photo, so this is a bit disorienting, but here:
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Haven't had any problem with build-up, happily!
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I don't do amazon robber barons but YES on the post-it whiteboard.
Related trick... Stick one of these on some thin gauge galvanized steel sheet, then use velcro command strips on the back to stick it wherever. Now you've got a magnetic whiteboard! Buy some reasonably strong magnets, and you can stick macro objects to it!
This is my go to.
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This is a really great idea!