Thursday, September 8, 2011

Magnetic Wall with Rustoleum

The project's in my son's room are well under way but they are not completed yet.  One of the new things I wanted to try was:
 We have old plaster walls in our home.  Every time we try to hang anything up, no matter how small or simple we end up with a large hole in the wall.  Our son is artistic.  He loves to draw and we can't keep enough paper or markers in this house.  He also loves to display his work in his room.  He creates theme walls.  This can be rather a pain when everything is marred with old tape or full of holes from previous thumbtacks.  When I heard of this wonderful magnetic primer on HGTV I knew I wanted to use it in his room.

My first tip for using this primer is to MIX IT AT THE STORE!!!!  I did not do this and regretted it!!  It took a good half hour of mixing this before I could use it on the wall.  By this point my hand was ready to fall off and there was no painting done.

Next, this primer can be hard to clean so if you are not priming the whole wall cover the part you are not priming.  I also had to scrape this off our baseboards and it was quite a project.  Thankfully the hardwoods were covered.  This primer does spray when you are rolling it.  I was using a foam roller and do not usually have to worry about spraying.  The primer does have a texture to it which could have caused the spraying.

The box recommends three coats of primer followed by no more than two coats of the wall color.  I followed these directions, I did three coats, each a half hour apart, as recommended on the box.  Waited the full four hours and painted the top color, waited about three hours for it to dry and added the magnets.  It did not work.  The magnets slid down the wall and did not stick.  I headed to the internet for help and found that many who had tried this recommended as many as six coats of the primer.  Back to the drawing board, added three more coats of primer and topped it with one coat of the wall color.  IT WORKED!!

Some spots on the wall are more magnetic than others.  I am on the look out for slightly stronger magnets so he can add more artwork.  Overall I am happy with the primer.  Would have been happier if I had these tips ahead of time.  The process would have been much smoother.
Sorry for the blurry pictures.
 
Last tip~do not use this primer the day before a big event, say like your sister's wedding, because you will be covered in black flecks and your nails will be black and you may need to douse yourself with large quantities of paint thinner so you can be presentable for the big day.

This is his completed desk that I had shown in a previous post.
It looks amazing. Loving all the storage and he has plenty of space to sit and create his masterpieces.

Would love to know if anyone else tries/tried this product and what your thoughts are.

Linking to:





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9 comments:

Amanda Towne said...

Looks great, Ruth!

Adrienne said...

I've never heard of this paint - what a great idea! His room looks great - I bet he loves it!

Lindsay said...

I love Rustoleum, haven't used the magnetic kind though. Thanks for the tips. I would love to do something like this. How cool is it that you can use a paint to make a magnetic wall?!

Dawn said...

Great idea, I may have to try some. Thanks for the tips, always nicer to do it right the first time, and now I will due to your experience:)

Jaime Lyn at Crafty Scrappy Happy said...

Hi friend! Thank you SO much for linking up! I am SO inspired! I have debated buying the magnetic paint multiple times but now that I have seen this project I am SUPER excited to look at it again! Thank you for all of the great advice---I will for sure be having mine mixed at the store :o) Yayyyy I am SOOO happy you linked up---I have missed hearing from you!
Jaime

KimMalk said...

I'm so glad you got a nice display gallery for your son--I'm sure he enjoys it. I've used this product as well, and should have put more coats on, I can only stick fairly light things on it.

Etcetorize said...

Thanks for the tips! I have a can of this paint and haven't tried it yet. I'll definitely take it in to get shaken up.
I've started up a new linky party on Mondays over at etcetorize.blogspot.com. I hope you'll come by next week and share this project~

Sarah said...

We tried this a few years ago, and after 4 coats it still didn't work very well. My husband wasn't in the mood to buy another can, but maybe things have improved since we did it. It might be time to try it again!

Deborah March said...

OmiGOSH, I didn't even know this stuff EXISTED! Really must try it...thanks for the inspiration!

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