My
son has a pirate themed bedroom. It is not an over the top pirate theme. It is
also not cartoonish. It is more nautical than anything else… or at least it was
until we took on a magnetic world wall map project. I knew that I wanted a large world map that my
son could interact with in his room and I knew that I wanted it mounted on his
wall. So I spent a bit of time thinking about how I wanted to accomplish this
and decided on magnets.
What you need:
2
-17x23 Magnetic Dry-Erase Board
36x48
Hammond World Wall Map Modern Day as Antique
Paintbrush
Mod Podge
Scissors
How to make it:
Take
the map and lay in on the magnetic dry erase board to figure out where you want
to cut. I cut the map in half and then trimmed around the sides until if fit
inside the frame of the magnetic dry erase board.
Now
take the Magnetic Dry-Erase Board and put on a coat of
Mod
Podge. Do one board completely before moving onto the second board so that the Mod
Podge does not dry out.
Lay
the map on top of the Mod Podge on the Magnetic
Dry-Erase Board; starting at one end and smoothing flat as you go in order to
avoid bubbling.
Now put on 1-2 coats of Mod Podge on top of
the map to seal it onto the Magnetic Dry-Erase Board. Let the Mod Podge dry
between coats.
Now repeat this process on the second Magnetic
Dry-Erase Board for the other half of the map.
I let my maps dry overnight and then I hung
them on the wall the next day. These are sturdy boards – so you want to make
sure for safety sake that you are anchoring them to a stud.
I
spent hours searching the internet for the perfect pirate world map for my
son’s bedroom. After looking and looking and looking I finally found the
perfect map. I bought the Hammond World Wall Map – Modern Day as Antique on
ebay and I love it! I chose this map because it has a vintage feel and I knew
my son would go crazy for the pirate ships and sea creatures on the map.
I bought my 17x23
Magnetic Dry-Erase Board with Tray at
Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon. I chose this specific Magnetic Dry-Erase Board because it
screws into the wall in each corner. I knew that this would be the safest
choice for my over active boys who like to bounce off walls. They could play
with the map to their hearts content and I would not worry at all about it
coming down on them.
We were
originally going to put the map in frames, but then my husband decided that he
wanted our son to be able to play with the map. Then we talked about doing a
corkboard and quickly decided against the kids having tacks to play with {can’t
you just hear the screaming that would have created!}. Then we landed on the
idea of a magnet board. I told my husband about oil pans being a good option,
but he wanted something that was more finished looking. I think this turned out
quite well.
