Side Quest: Kitchen Whiteboard Unit

You can never have enough kitchen storage. This was a short project to turn a bog-standard wall unit in to a multi-function magnetic memo board, key holder and mail carrier.

The whiteboard surface is a self adhesive sticker with a dry wipe finish and a ferric core to give a magnetic attraction: FerroFlex® 600mm Wide Flexible Ferrous Sheet – Self-Adhesive / Dry-Wipe | Large Metre Sheet from First4magnets.com

It’s worth noting that the surface works best with neodymium magnets; the attraction with a ferromagnets is not that great and they can’t support much weight.

The door handles were custom designed to incorporate storage for the dry-wipe pens and eraser. The subsequent design was 3D printed with PLA and screw-fixed to the underside of the door.

The left hand handle was a mirror copy of the right hand

To finalise the unit and add more functionality; a mail holder and set of key hooks were added to the side closest the door.

This holder was a literally ‘butchered’ from a previous noticeboard (i.e. cut in half), re-drilled and resprayed.

Final cost

For anyone thinking of trying this at home; here is a bill of materials.

ItemSupplierCost
Wall unit & doorsWickes – 1000mm wall unit£ 122.00
Dry-wipe surface(via eBay): Ferroflex sheet (1 metre)£ 21.68
Dry-wipe pensMorrisons – pack of 4 pens£ 1.50
Mail & key holderNot on the High Street£ 35.99
Pen holderAbout 80 gram of white PLA from stock£ 1.23
Misc. fixingsScrews and plugs to mount the unit and small screws to fix the handles in place (nominal cost from stock)£ 2.50
Total cost was approx. £185.00