Serve lunch on a dry erase white board

Serve lunch on a white board to label types of food and protect your MDF work bench from curry stains.

Step 1 Put a white board on the table, get out your food and label

We happened to have a whole lot of different kinds of Indian food, some vegetarian and some not, a few different types of lamb, some rice and plenty of naan. With so many containers labeling the different dishes turned out to be really helpful - especially when feeding 25 hungry people who just moved the squid-labs machine shop to its new location.

The erase board also protected the MDF table really well, even when a whole bunch of chicken curry freed itself from its cardboard container.

Once the meal is over you can clean off the table and wipe off your labels at the same time.

When the table isn't being used to serve meals you can sit down for a meeting and sketch out your ideas right on the table surface!

All in all it turned out to be a pretty useful application of a pretty low-tech idea.

Comments

[rainbowlory]

i think thats a great idea...... then ppl get what they want and not looking in every box.. just get what you want

[jsoroko]

Digressive comment: The infographics comments really got me thinking, and doesn't that tell you something interesting about instructables members as a group? Infographics on dining tables?

On-Point comment: I've had some good outcomes with paint-on chalkboarda, which now come in colors other than black. I've had less success with paint-on (to make surfaces magnetic like white boards) - which I think would work out better with multiple coats. Am am about to test whiteboard' paint. We have two magnetic white boards - and when I'm working on large projects I want many more because of their versatility.

Great instructable!

[container_gardener]

Sometimes, the simplest ideas are the best ideas. I'm getting hungry imagining the food aromas.

[benthekahn]

Brilliant.

[rupamagic]

It is a great idea. Who would have thought? I have one question. Where did the food come from, and was it good? I am always looking to add to my list of restaurants with GOOD food to go.

[killerjackalope]

Umm kiteman and I discussed this very idea a while ago in a forum topic... Granted the idea was different the whiteboard as the table... Still cool... Plus environmental, no paper wasted making little label cards.

[jongscx]

Wait, is it a "Table-turned-dry erase board" OR a "Dry erase board-turned table"... I'm so confused?!?

[PetervG]

I think thats obvious you can label with white boards, should be put in forums probably.

[CameronSS]

The instructable does not tell you that you can write on a dry erase board. It is saying that you can make an entire tabletop from a dry erase board. It is an uncommon application for a common material, which is all most instructables are.

[DanAdamKOF]

Boo! Don't be a hater, this is a nice instructable.

[theRIAA]

put some flow-charts and graphs of the characteristics of different food and itl be perfect

[TheCheese9921]

it makes me want to bring a marker and relable everything

[rhett]

This is so not-obvious. Great instructable! It's great because it accommodates all different food sizes, locations, and labels. For example, I've seen people try to do this with paper labels, but then you can't make a huge "VEGETARIAN" unless you happen to find big paper.

[willofgod]

Allows Venn diagram like groupings too.