Though I have a lovely gallery wall in my office, what I face when I'm sitting at my desk are two doors - one which leads to the hallway and I almost always keep open, and the other which leads to our laundry room and I always keep closed since there's another door we use to access that space.
For awhile I kept both doors blank, which made for an uninspiring view from my desk. I finally realized the door I always keep closed would be a great spot for a cork board. While I love Pinterest and use it almost daily, it's nice to be able to pin on an traditional physical board. It's a great spot not just for inspiring images, but also for notes, reminders, keepsakes, artwork, and fabric swatches. Plus a cork board gives me a certain tactile experience I don't get when I'm pinning virtually, and by having it in front of my desk it can serve as something beautiful to glance at throughout the workday to give my eyes a rest from the computer screen.
Before heading to the store, I measured my door so I could easily decide what size cork board would make best use of the space. The 24x36 size was just the right width and height. Not too big, not too small.
To make it fit seamlessly with the decor of my office, I covered the board in a simple white cotton fabric and gave it the look of nailhead trim by adding super inexpensive thumb tacks along the line of the board's frame. Since my place is a rental, I didn't want to make any holes on the door, so I used command strips to mount the board.
Overall the process was easy and I'm thrilled with the results. Here's how it looks:
I pinned: a few inspiring images (from my virtual boards) that I had printed on card stock, a magazine pull-out, a lovely art piece my sister made for me with the word 'Love' painted in gold, a few fabrics I'm considering for pillows for the shop, as well as a little printed reminder to myself to drink more water, take my vitamins, and make green juice.
For those of you interested in making a similar board for yourself, here's a list of what I used and a few tips:
- 24x36 cork board
- 1 yard of white cotton fabric
- 2 packs of thumb tacks
- clear pushpins
- a pack of large command strips
- light duty staple gun
Tips:
-Iron your fabric before stapling it to the board
-After you staple the fabric on one side of the board, pull the fabric really tight before stapling the other side.
-When placing the thumb tacks, use your thumb as a spacing guide
-Place the command strips on the frame of the board to help them best adhere to the wall
-The strips come in two different colors - black and white. Since you may possibly be able to see a little bit of the strips from a side view, get the ones that are closest in color to either your wall color or the color of your fabric.
-Most importantly, have fun pinning to your board!
*The folks at Office Depot sponsored this post. All ideas/opinions/thoughts are my own.
