More from the (Bulletin) Board Room

This is another bulletin board/memo board/pegboard (I think I love pegboard!) organizational idea. Pottery Barn was actually the inspiration, here. (Stephenie-The Cookie Mom asked me about this. Stephenie, hope this effort helps you in some way!) Pottery Barn Teen has a beautiful piece that anyone would love. Alas, it was not in our budget (on sale, it sells for $299), and after my daughter had flipped over it, I decided we could just make our own version. It was a fun process, and though we fizzled at the end (no frame to finish it off), we both thought it turned out great. Not perfect all over –just perfect for her!

Here’s the inspiration from Pottery Barn:

from Pottery Barn Teen

Oh…I had forgotten how cool it was!

Here is our version–now much-used (and it looks like it needs a clean-up, sweet daughter!):

PBT--Reinvented...Don't ask me why there is a wire coat hanger or old candy canes on here. She marches to her own drummer, and I love that about her!

First, we built a structure to mount the individual squares onto. We built it out of 1 x 2s that were left over from something. (1 x 2s are cheap, even if you do have to buy them.)  Nothing fancy (It doesn’t show.) Simply a square with three verticals.

Detailed blueprint for memo board skeleton

View from the side of the framework

The vertical boards are 12 inches apart.

Next, my sweet husband (OK. He might have sighed at this request, but he did it anyway, thereby making him sweet.) cut pegboard into 12 inch squares. We used the pegboard as a base for the cork tiles–even the ones with fabric on top. The pegboard was what I had on hand, but I have to tell you that it made the piece quite heavy. Heavy enough that it is hung on studs. If I were doing this again, I might use foam core as the base for the fabric and cork squares.

My daughter picked fabrics and decided the layout of the 3 x 3 grid, though because we used Velcro (keep reading), they layout can be changed. She opted to leave two squares as pegboard, which we spray painted silver. The rest we hot glued cork on top of and wrapped five of those with the various fabrics. She wanted a white board but I couldn’t find the materials. Also, a piece of metal would have been great (for magnets), but none was readily available that didn’t have to be cut. Did I mention that I am deathly (I tend to exaggerate) afraid of cut metal? I hear it hurts.

You could even paint a square of plywood or luan with chalkboard paint. The point is that the possibilities are endless!

To adhere the squares to the framing, we stapled strips of velcro onto the verticals and the edges of the squares. Believe it or not, placing the squares on the velcro perfectly is harder than it looks! In fact, we decided not to worry about perfection. It ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Not perfect, but good enough!

Slight improvement though still not perfect!

We prepared it for hanging with eye screws and wire. Wire seems to be a bit more forgiving when it comes to leveling. Just watch out for the cut ends. Lethal! (Again, exaggeration. But cut wire really can cut you.)

Other views:

Looking at these pictures makes me want to go back and make a frame to finish it off. (I think it could use one.) But for now, my daughter loves how it all came together! It was a good project for us to do together. And just think, if she didn’t have a place for all of these treasures, they would be in a stack or box somewhere. Oh, who am I kidding? They’d be on the floor.

Organization is good. Making it happen with your teen aged daughter is even better.