Here’s a great solution for making your art easel easy to clean (and cute!) My sweet friend who teaches down the hall from me shared this idea with me last year. It held up all year and still looks great going into this year. This easel cover will wipe clean with a wet wipe or washcloth. Even if the paint is dried, you can spray some cleaner on and wipe it off, or use a wet wash cloth.
I bought black and white polka dot wrapping paper and clear vinyl. The clear vinyl is sold by the yard at places like Hobby Lobby, JoAnn’s, and Walmart. I don’t recall the exact weight of my clear vinyl, but it was a medium weight (not too thick, not too thin). You will need to measure your easel boards to find out how many yards of vinyl you will need to buy. (I covered the back and front of mine.)
The first thing to do is remove the boards from the easel. The boards are usually attached to the easel stand with screws.
Step 2: Wrap the boards in the wrapping paper. I chose the neutral black and white dotted paper so it will match any colors I use in the classroom. You just wrap them like you would wrap a gift. I taped the paper with clear shipping tape.
Step 3: Spread out the clear vinyl and lay the easel boards down. Cut the vinyl to the size you need (this is just like wrapping a gift). Fold over the vinyl and tape it with clear shipping tape. Make sure all of your seams– the wrapping paper seams and the vinyl seams– are on the back of the boards. I covered the whole board, front and back with vinyl just in case paint drips onto the other side.
Step 4: Place the boards back onto the easel frame. Match up the holes in your easel boards with the holes in the easel frame. The holes are covered up with wrapping paper and vinyl, but you can feel them with your fingers. I used the pointy end of a drafting compass to punch a hole through the paper and vinyl where the holes were. Tighten the screws to reattach the boards to the easel frame.
That’s it! Now your easel will wipe clean easily. All those years I spent covering my easel with bulletin board paper which doesn’t wipe clean… shaking my head. 🙂
I also used some spray paint (the kind that is made for plastic) to paint the paint trays this pretty aqua color so they would match my classroom. What you see on the wall in the photo above is a plastic shower curtain (from Walmart). I attached this to the wall so the children wouldn’t get paint on the wall. I actually had a child paint the wall one year and couldn’t completely get the paint off the cinder block. This protects it and it matches the room really well.
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I inherited an old easel with boards that would actually absorb watercolor paint and was terrible to clean.
I covered the easel with Glad Press n’ Seal. It is sticky enough to remain stuck to the easel and easy to wipe down or replace.
Love your more permanent solution.
Glad Press’n Seal is a great idea! I was thinking of contact paper being easier than taking the boards off, etc. This past year I used plastic bags, but they were a pain in the neck.
Yes! Contact paper and it comes in different prints. Easy clean.
The very first year I got my easel a little one walked over to it on Get Acquainted Night (while he was suppose to be sitting with his parents) and scribbled all over it with his new markers. I’ve not figured a way to cover it permanently, but now have a solution that will last and be cute! Thanks!
Yes, lots of things happen on those meet-the-teacher nights, don’t they! 🙂
I also love your shower curtain idea!
Thanks, Eilis! There are so many cute ones out there, too. 🙂
Love your idea! Will definitely use it in my classroom, It’s both practical and cute! Thank you.
Karen – seriously – BRILLIANT!!! I am forwarding this to my teaching partners immediately! We will definitely be doing this at our easel this year!!!
Thank you for your classroom ideas…you have no idea the positive influence you have out in the ECE world.
THANK YOU!
Melissa
Thanks so much, Melissa! I have to give credit for this idea to my friend, Kimber. Glad you like it!
Thank you! Thank you! Honestly I had given up with my easel and was ready to donate it! Thanks for saving painting in room 122! 🙂
I used decorative contact paper and mine has held up for 10 years. We just wipe with a wet paper towel or baby wipe.
I love using contact paper, so much easier to change over to new. What thoughts do you have on easel backgrounds. I think polka dots might be too busy making it hard for the eye to focus. I am thinking to go with complementary colors if I can find them or maybe change with the season??? Thoughts?
I’m so glad you’re not getting rid of your paint easel! It’s so great for the kids. Using an inclined board is good for fine motor and hand-eye coordination.
I would like to know what you have in the paint cups that looks like plastic. Is it a zip lock bag to help with clean up?
Yes, those are ziplock bags. It makes clean up a whole lot easier! When you want to change colors, you just pull out the bag and throw it away.
Wow! What an idea! The worst part of clean up for me has been the paint cups. Thank you!!!
Now, why haven’t I thought of that??? What a great and time saving idea!!! Added bonus is that it will help save my sink drain, as well! 😉
We are constantly cleaning the wall next to our easel. Can’t wait to try the shower curtain! Did you use plastic wrap in your paint cups?
Those are ziplock bags. Line the paint cup with the ziplock bag, pour in the paint, and clean up will be a whole lot easier. You can just pull out the bag and throw it away.
I am certainly going to try this. Thanks
Wow Karen! This is an awesome idea thanks for sharing!
Ada
I am an artist and a preschool teacher. I love to watch children paint at the easel. A dirty easel is a well used easel, but it can get pretty gunked up with paint. I’ve used the contact paper and it works really well. Don’t have to remove boards. Still great idea.
I love what you said about “a dirty easel is a well used easel” We only clean our wall-mounted easel twice a year and asked the children to paint the white frame around it. It looked so COOL! It also serves as a dry-marker board and is one-swipe clean! One day a helpful substitute washed all the paint off the frame.The kids noticed as soon as they work from rest time and quickly repainted it!! We love our “dirty” easel!
You can also use clear contact paper to cover the easel and it will wipe off with a damp cloth very easily.
Self-adhesive Contact paper works well too. Wipes off with a wet cloth easily. We have had Contact paper on our classroom easels for several years…with a print that looks like wallpaper one might have used back in the 80’s (I inherited them like that…lol!) This year, I’m planning on updating it with some zebra printed Contact paper I bought last year!
I can imagine. 🙂 Cute Contact paper is very hard to find.
Another solition is to cover easel boards with contact paper. It also wipes clean and holds up well
What a great idea. I love the polka dots. Would it work to laminate the paper and then attach it to the easel?
Hmm, I don’t know. The laminator we have at school is a dinosaur, so I know it would not successfully laminate wrapping paper. If you have a nice laminator, though… might be worth a try.
Laminating the paper does work. we went cheap this year and just laminated several sheets of newspaper and they stayed up all year! I didn’t think of removing the boards though – that would have made it much easier! I love the gift wrap idea – a little prettier. The only problem with contact paper is when you get tired of it or it rips and you need to replace it. After a few years, it’s hard to get off!
I love this idea too. I notice plastic extending out of the easel cups. Do you have the paint in ziplock baggies?
Yes, the ziplock bags line the cup and I just pour the paint in. Clean up is so much easier.
Love this idea. This will be a time saver!
I’m so super duper HAPPY with this bee-uuu- tee-ful solution, I have hated, hated, hated painting on the easel…til today! Off to Walmart.
I love the idea. Nicely done . Thanks for sharing Karen!!!
Karen, THANK YOU so much! I can’t wait to transform my easel!
I thought it was contact paper at first….great idea! (and cute, which is SO important! LOL)
So glad you are back! I enjoy your website. I have been a preschool teacher for 21 years and you have taught me new and valuable ideas.
Thank you!
Thanks, Pam!
Love this idea! I have also used a shower curtain as a sand table cover. My sand table lid was broken, and due to budget cuts…I sewed elastic around the yellow duck shower curtain.
Sounds cute! Great idea.
OMG, that is a great idea! Thank you! I have a sand table with kinetic sand and the lid is just a hard plastic cover that slides everywhere!
Love this creative and great solution… 😉
Thanks for sharing!
I used to do this and it works great. Still do!
I’m going to try the shower curtain. In my classroom I have a long wall of a built in large easel, and I’ve tried large roll paper and a plastic table cloth to cover it, but it just doesn’t hold up. Thanks for the ideas!
I love the shower curtain idea. At the end of last year I spent about an hour scrubbing the wall around our easel to get the paint off.
I suggested to the teachers at my campus to cover their easels with plastic decorative tablecloth. You can find some neat designs sold by the yard at Walmart, Hobby Lobby and Joann Fabrics.
I just retired this past year but still love to check out your site. One additional thing I did at my easel was to cover the floor with part of a shower curtain that I taped to the floor. It sure made clean-up easier and saved the flooring. Thanks for the time you spend posting so many wonderful ideas. I loved finding new or reinvented ideas on you site.
I use the shower curtain under my easel as well. I want to have my easel in a different place this year. I’ll have to think about where.
I am definitely going to do this! My easel is stained with paint and I am constantly changing the paper. I love the idea of using wrapping paper because I too, have been using bulletin board paper. Also, a trick I use for the paint cups is to place a baggie inside each one then put the paint in. It makes for a quick and easy cleanup when I can just pull out the baggie and replace with a new one. No more soaking paint cups in a bucket of soapy water overnight! I’m also going to get a shower curtain for the wall! Thanks so much for sharing your idea!
I love the baggie idea. Trying to get all of the old paint out is time consuming. Also, paint can clog the drain.
Love the easel, love the shower curtain, love the plastic bags in the paint cups – love the whole darned thing! Thank you!
Thanks, Emily!
This is awesome!!! I enjoy reading about different ways to make classroom organization and clean up easier! I only wish I was creative enough to blog about it, but I LOVE this idea! Thanks so much for sharing!!
Thank you your ideas are inspiring………
This is really brilliant and interesting….
does the spray paint on the tray hold up well, or does it chip easily. I covered my board like this today and love it! I would love to add the bright color to my tray as well but I’m wondering if It requires sanding.
I didn’t sand mine. The spray paint held up well, just make sure your can of spray paint says it will work on plastic. Also, like all paint, the longer you let it sit and harden before you do anything with the trays, the better. So let them sit for days before you try to attach them back to the easel, or be very careful when you do. I think I had a couple of small chips to the paint when the paint was newer, but nothing bad.
How did you … or any iseas how to attach the shower curtain to the wall? Walls here are part of a rented place so we cant leave holes. Thank you.
I put 3M hooks on the wall. Shower curtains have those holes already in them, so I put a hook on the wall for each hole in the shower curtain. They are the removable Scotch 3M hooks.
I recently moved into a new preschool room and the art easel had contact paper on it and I wanted to update, make it fresh or just mine. When taking off the contact paper it left sticky stuff on the board. but I’m going to recover it so I don’t care. I used to cover the board with black trash bags and when it got really messy I would just change the trash bags. No washing. same concept as the paint cups.
Im going to try this with mine. Not sure mine comes apart.