Sunday, March 1, 2015

Cork Board Makeover

Ever since we moved into our house, and especially since the school year started in September, my husband has been suggesting that I get a desk and create an office space of my own in one of the guest rooms. Without a desk to work at, I inevitably end up grading or lesson planning at the coffee table in the family room, at the dining room table, at the kitchen table, or at the counter...pretty much wherever there is an empty flat surface to work at. Well, I finally bit the bullet and bought a desk. It is not supposed to arrive until later in the week, so in the mean time, I figured I would makeover an old cork board.

Rather than buying a new cork board, I went over to my parents' house and got the old one out of my old bedroom. It was pretty faded and icky looking, but with it being 12+ years old, I expected no less.


After bringing the cork board back to the house, I assembled all of my materials and got to work.


one yard of fabric, adhesive spray, glue gun, 300 thumbtacks


I started by ironing the fabric because no one likes creases in their fabric-covered cork board.




Then, I sprayed the cork board with adhesive spray before laying the fabric on top. I smoothed out the fabric with my hands to make sure there were no bubbles or awkward layering. Notice that I left 3-4 inches of excess fabric around the edges of the cork board.





Next, I started to push in the thumbtacks.




My thumbtacks were not perfectly straight. In fact, some overlapped. However, it does not bother me too much. If I had really wanted to take the extra step, I could have used a straightedge to make sure everything was lined up. After all 275 thumbtacks were in place and my fingers felt like they were going to fall off, I hot glued the excess material onto the backside of the cork board. I then used the remaining 25 thumbtacks as additional support on the back.

All the while, my kitty assistant was keeping a close eye on things.



And that is it! The whole thing cost me roughly $15 for the fabric and thumbtacks, as I already had the glue gun and the adhesive spray.


Once the cork board is hung on the wall, I will add other things to it, but for now, I just pinned a pink bow (I LOVE pink) and and the charm from my wedding bouquet, which was a one sided locket with a picture of my kitten in it.  



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