233 Lancaster Ave · kitchen wall
The whiteboard, but it can talk back
A 50″ matte panel where the whiteboard hangs now, drawn to look like the board it replaces — same marker colours, same photo rail down the left, same five weeks. Everything on it is live, and the things a whiteboard can't do, it does: a trip spans its days instead of being split into three words, today circles itself, and the row along the bottom keeps score.
The four status cards sit directly above the four buttons. Press yours, the card above it ticks green — no lit button required, which was the thing nothing on the market could actually do.
Does a 50″ actually fit?
You measured 51″ clear between the window trim and the fridge. The magnetic bezel adds roughly ¾″ per side, so that comes out of the gap too.
| Size | Panel width | With bezel | Gap each side | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 43″ | 38.2″ | ≈ 39.7″ | 5.6″ | Fits easily, leaves the wall looking half-empty |
| 50″ | 44.3″ | ≈ 45.8″ | 2.6″ | The one. Fills the wall, still breathes |
| 55″ | 48.7″ | ≈ 50.2″ | 0.4″ | No — touching the trim and the fridge |
Three things worth knowing before you buy
Art Mode won't do this
Art Mode is a stills slideshow driven by an unofficial API that Samsung has already broken once. Run the panel as a plain HDMI display fed by a small computer behind it — then it's a browser window and it can do anything.
You keep the parts of the Frame that matter here: the matte anti-glare panel, the 1″ flush mount, and the bezel that makes it read as a picture rather than a TV.
No burn-in — it's LCD
The Frame is QLED, not OLED, so a mostly-static calendar sitting there twelve hours a day costs you nothing. This exact plan on an OLED would be a slow disaster.
≈ $90/yr
Running roughly 16 hours a day at PA rates. Home Assistant can drop it overnight and when the house is empty.
The One Connect box needs a home
The Frame puts every port in a separate box and runs one thin cable to the panel — that's how it sits flush. The box plus the little computer need somewhere to live.
The cabinet above the fridge is right there and already has power. The outlet buried behind the whiteboard stops mattering.
What draws the board
Nothing new architecturally — this is the closet5 pattern already running. closet5 serves the page; a Raspberry Pi behind the panel is a dumb kiosk browser pointed at it. If the Pi dies you replace a $90 part and the app never moved.
| On the board | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| The five-week grid and its entries | Google Calendar — the same one on your phone, so Steph writes an event once |
| Multi-day trips as a single bar | Calendar events that already have a start and an end; the whiteboard just can't draw it |
| Today's weather and indoor temps | Home Assistant, live |
| The four job cards | The flags and per-kid chore text already built and running |
| The photo rail | A rotating pick from the family album, taped at an angle like the ones on the board now |
| School lunch, bin night, who's home | Whatever else earns its place — it's a web page |