I recently bought a stainless steel fridge, but now my magnets won’t stick to it. I need some place to hang all my magnets & my son’s art work. I was thinking of hanging up a metal panel on my wall, when I happened to “stumble/google” across Magnetic Paint!! This was so cool I had to try it!!!
I went to Home Depot and bought Rustoleum Magnetic Primer. It is a little pricey; it runs ~$20 for a quart, which should cover 3 coats on a 4×4 ft area. I was able to cover my 5×9 ft wall with 2 cans of magnetic primer. I had read online that some people had to put 6 or even 9 coats on their wall. Three coats worked fine for me. In fact magnets stuck fine after one coat. We even found our fingers became magnetic during the process! You will need strong magnets to hold stuff up after the final coat. Those magnetic letters work, but they will not hold any paper to the wall, but they are so weak they don’t even hold paper to a fridge. Unless you use at least 10 of them.
Just some hints I found useful.
1. Tape off the area you want to paint. I did a whole wall, But you could also do a neat shape or stripes. You really don’t need the entire wall magnetic.
2. Ask the paint department to shake the paint. And stir it well before you use it and while you are painting. There are small metal filings that will form a sediment. The paint guy told me the directions said to stir it, so I said fine, I’ll stir it. I took the cans home and shook each can by hand for about 5 minutes, then stirred it for another 5-10 minutes until no more sledge was at the bottom.
3. Don’t be shocked: It goes on BLACK! It is metal based and will go on Black. I was worried the top coat would need multiple coats and dampen the magnetic attraction. It is a primer so it is really easy to cover up with a light colored top coat. You should wait about 30 minutes to reapply additional coats. 3 coats worked great for me.
4. Paint it. If you want a different color than black you should paint it. There is an option to paint it with a blackboard paint or Dry erase board paint. The blackboard paint comes in a variety of colors, I almost did a light blue, but chickened out and did normal paint. The Home Depot guy told me that the blackboard & Dry erase paint go on fine, but if you have a textured wall you will have a “dust” accumulate in the hills & valleys of the wall, and will have to wash it not just wipe it down.
5. Ventilate. It is stinky so do it on a day you can open your windows. The can says to wait 4 hours to fully dry before repainting. I waited overnight, and found the fumes lingered through the night. The smell was much better away after I put the top coat on.
Oh FYI, I just read on Rustoleum Magnetic Primer box that it is “Now 3 times Stronger”… That would explain why I could use 3 coats and others used 6-9 coats!
Here are some pictures of my Magnetic wall project.
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all done magnetic wall
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corner paint crack touched up easily after tape was removed
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drying magnetic wall paint
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magnet stuck to my finger
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magnetic wall paint
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painting over magnetic paint
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testing cover paint
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Thanks Aurora!
