The other day I looked at our fabric covered cork bulletin board in horror as I realized that it was a HUGE unorganized MESS! The kids had piled artwork upon more artwork upon school papers and flyers until I had no idea what was even on there anymore. It was nothing more than a jumbled eyesore, and I needed to do something to organize it and make it functional again. I wanted to frame out different sections of the board so that each item pinned on the board would be visible and draw my attention (I mean, that’s the entire point of putting things up on the board, right? I need to be able to see it all and know what’s up there!), so I decided to make a color blocked corkboard that would fit our needs.
I started by ripping off the old and frayed fabric. I’m one of the most indecisive people in the world, so when I initially covered the board in fabric I knew that I’d want to change it again someday. I had used nothing more than spray adhesive to apply the fabric, so it peeled off easily and left me with a blank canvas to work with.
My little helper and I grabbed some papers to figure out the spacing, and then I marked out my blocks with a pencil.
The corkboard is hanging up in a dark hallway off of our kitchen – it doesn’t get a lot of light, and it’s surrounded by grey walls, so I knew I wanted to paint it bold and bright. I was inspired by the amazing sunsets we’ve had lately, so I chose a color palette of yellows, orange and pink. I wanted to incorporate the blue shades as well, but a quick Photoshop mock-up showed me that the blue was going to look too out-of-place among the warm toned blocks. I’m still not 100% happy with the final color palette since I only used paints that I already had on-hand. I may tweak them a bit after my next trip to the craft store, but for now it’s fine.
I used painter’s tape to mask out a few blocks at a time and started painting with acrylic craft paint. Cork is incredibly absorbent, so each block took about 4-5 coats of paint to give it a uniform look. At the very end when I was painting my last two blocks (of course!) I discovered a great tip that will save a lot of time and paint – cover the block with a coat of matte Mod Podge and allow it to dry before painting. It will help seal the cork so that it doesn’t suck up too much paint, and you’ll get a much smoother finish with only 2-3 coats of paint. SO wish I had figured that out before I ran out of orange paint and was left with a semi-blotchy block – no worries though, the papers end up covering it all up anyway!
You might have noticed that my corkboard has screws and washers in the corners. That’s because our kiddos are prone to knocking everything off the walls, so my hubby decided to more permanently attach it to the wall to avoid any problems. I just painted right over them, and the papers will usually cover them up too.
Easy peasy! It’s sort of amazing what a little bit of paint can do for your organization!
Oh, and that sparkly center block…here’s a closer look. It’s covered in Champagne Glamour Dust from DecoArt (the most amazing glitter paint EVER!), and it’s reserved for the most important and fancy papers. Right now it’s home to my sister-in-law’s wedding invitation 🙂
It’s SO much easier to see everything now! I cleared out all of our old papers and artwork, and now we have a fresh, bright, clean slate to work with. I love the way that the colors frame out the papers so that each one is much more visible and organized. Not too shabby for about an hour of work!
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