Old Marker or Crayon marks on your walls? How to FINALLY get them clean!

We’ve all been there.. our charming child is quietly drawing with markers or crayons when suddenly they realize those wide open white walls are a perfect canvas for art! While I can’t really blame my youngest Picasso (seriously… walls kinda DO look like large pieces of paper) my walls suffer her artistic wrath more than I would like, and my elbow grease isn’t cutting it when it comes to removing the stubborn stains.

Redirecting works, but that still leaves marks on the walls – ones that I need to remove. After exhausting the cleaners stored under my sink, as well as removing some paint finish with a magic eraser, I turned to Google and Pinterest to help solve my dilemma. My search brought up quite a few options to try, so I got to work, discovering what really works to remove marker and crayons from walls, and what doesn’t.

First up – Mayonnaise to remove Crayon

This one made my nose twitch – Mayonnaise? ON MY WALLS? Ok…. considering I have a large, mostly unused jar in the refrigerator, I figured
it couldn’t hurt to try.

The instructions say to rub some on the wall, let sit then wipe off with a damp cloth. I really didn’t want to touch the mayo so I scooped some into a small container and used a paint brush to apply the goop to the stain. I let it set for 5 minutes then wiped it off per the directions. Some of the orange crayon came away, but the great majority of the mark remained firmly affixed to my wall. This could be because I have older, textured walls that allow stains to hide in the dips – in any event, this method didn’t work for me.

Next Up: Cooking Spray for Crayon Marks

I read over and over again that WD-40 helps remove crayon stains, but as I don’t have any currently, I used my trusty replacement – cooking spray! While handy in the kitchen, I have found this magic spray helps ease door squeaks and removes sticky labels almost as well as the garage staple.. and wouldn’t you know it, it worked on the crayon as well. I sprayed it on then scrubbed it off. It did take a bit of elbow grease, but not enough to make my arms tired. I also ran another wet cloth over the cleaned spots to make sure I removed the cooking spray residue.

What about permanent marker?

First Up: Isopropyl Alcohol to remove Permanent Marker

I read that you can remove any kind of permanent marker, including red sharpie, with Isoproply or Ethyl Alcohol. I saturated the corner of a wash cloth and went to work. The marker came off as advertised, but so did some of the paint! I’m not sure if I left it on too long or if it was directly due to our semi-gloss paint, but as you can see from the picture on the left, the marker and gloss are gone, leaving an evident matte spot. Like the mayonnaise,while this trick works, it will not work for my needs.

Next up: Lysol to clean Permanent Marker off walls

Most of the tricks I came across I had heard about before, but this one was new to me. Lysol. Simply spray it on the stain and wipe away. One of the comments on a thread did note that it CAN strip paint as well, but this was not my experience. Be forewarned, test this method on a small section before you go crazy and spray it everywhere. The picture to the left shows what once was a large, blue circle that taunted me every time I saw it. 30 Seconds later and I had the entire section clean. Verdict: Lysol worked for me AND left my paint shiny (again, spot check BEFORE you do this!)

In summary –

Of all the methods and solutions I tried to remove the artistic marks from my walls, Lysol and Cooking Spray seem to be my new ‘go-to’ methods. What works for you? Leave a comment and let me know!

As for me,I’m tackling this tomorrow….

Milkandhugs