Bulletin Board (for home)

I had been wanting a big bulletin board for a while, but hadn’t been able to find one that I thought was both cute AND big enough for serious office work.  Over the Christmas break, I came across a $7 bulletin board at Goodwill that seemed to fit the bill.  It was big enough: 21 1/2in. x 28 3/4in. without the frame (26in. x 33 1/4in. with the frame).  The decor wasn’t to my liking, but I figured that even with recovering it, I would save money.  I found some gray/purple fabric for $1.50 a yard.  I used white lace, which ran my budget up a little bit.  I could have saved about $5 by just using ribbon, but I decided that in the end it was worth it.  I added two squeeze bottles of paint for less than $2, bringing the total for the project to $19.50 (plus tax and a few glue sticks).

Here is the bulletin board before:

To protect the table, I put a large bath towel underneath the plastic bag.  First, I disassembled the bulletin board, saving the pins for this project and the ribbon for a future project.  Then, I sanded off the stickers on the frame and applied three coats of gray acrylic paint.

Then, I gave the frame a distressed look by slopping ivory-colored paint over the gray (once the gray had dried, or else the rubbing will pull off the gray) and wiping it off again.  Since acrylic dries pretty fast, I had to do one side at a time, and be very quick about it.  The longer I waited, the more ivory paint stayed on the frame.

I was almost disheartened at first, because now it just looked dirty, but I kept going, hoping that it would turn out OK.  I recovered the board with the gray/purple fabric and secured it to the foam with a staple gun. (Note: I did not use the staple gun, because I’m not strong enough and it would have meant disaster.  Many thanks go to my dad for doing all the stapling for me… and for finding the sandpaper!)

Then I cut the lace as I measured it on the board.  I used 18 feet plus some left over from the headboard project.  I first crossed two lengths of lace so that they intersected in the middle and pinned it to make sure I had my starting point.  I then added the lengths slanting up from the left, then added the lengths going up from the right.  I did not pin or glue anything until I was sure I had symmetrical diamond shapes.

The center intersection was at 15 1/2 inches, so I made sure the one above and below were also at 15 1/2 inches.  The middle diamonds intersected on the right and left at 3 1/2 inches.

I also measured the distance of the parallel lines and the lengths of the diamonds to make sure they were straight.

Once the measurements and lines were good, I pinned the intersections with the pins that came with the board and glued the loose ends to the back. (I was two pins short, so I just hot-glued these intersections.)

I nearly ran out of lace, so some of the lengths didn’t go over the back of the board.  I just glued these close enough to the edge that the frame would cover it.  Then, I went hot-glue-gun happy gluing the board back on the frame.

The board came with brown paper stapled to the back of the frame (hence all the staples), but I haven’t added it yet.  I turned it over and I was done!

The same weekend, I used the leftover paint on some mirrors that I’d gotten at Goodwill for $2.50.  I cut paper to fit in the frame and taped it over the mirror part.  I tore pieces of flower stationary and wrote the trio from 1 Corinthians 13:13: So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.