Industrial-esque Repurposed Burlap Message Board

I have four kids. My youngest recently turned two. I am not going to pretend we even used the crib much. We didn't. Not through all four. One good thing about that is that we paid $40 for it at a garage sale over ten years ago. We bought it from a family that also had four children. Needless to say...it was used before WE owned it. The second good thing about it is that NOW I can repurpose it's parts. :)

SO today I will show you how I turned the particle-board whatever-its-called that holds the crib mattress up into a burlap-covered message board that can be re-decorated at any time. (MOST, if not all of my crafting has to have that requirement. If I'm going to go to the effort...I want to have options in the future.)

The pictures aren't lovely. My battery charger is missing (as are a number of things) and therefore I was not able to use my "investment" camera...but rather my point and shoot. Don't shoot me. {hehe..it's getting late} 

I can't ever decide if I should write ABOVE the picture or BELOW (if you read this...let me know which you prefer.) 

Anyway- I started with a crib-mattress board. As you can see it is pretty beat up.

 I purchased 8 (two packages) of cork tiles at Lowe's - they were in the kitchen organizing section.

They were the most expensive part of the whole project. 

 I practiced how I wanted to set them out...I am putting them down because I want to be able to stick things INTO the board...pictures, notes, etc.  The batting that I add later wouldn't have been able to HOLD all that I want it to.

 My youngest had gotten a hold of some of the tiles. FYI- cork tiles are torn rather easily.

 Once I figured out where I wanted them...I simply hot glued them into place.

 I ultimately decided on a staggard pattern...not exactly sure why. I figured this would be a more logical "hanging" pattern. I tend to group in the center and around corners.

 Then I used regular ole baby quilt batting.

 I covered this mess...

 I trimmed it so it just folded over the edge of the board- all the way around...

 And then I hot glued it down.

 I had left over batting that I laid down the center so that it would look fluffy and full after I put the burlap down. I glued that at the top and bottom so that it wouldn't move too much.

 Then we started to staple. I couldn't find my staple gun...so we (me and the hubby) used the manual staple "hitter" thingy. It freaked me out. So you don't have pictures of the "action"...I was too worried about impaled fingers.

 I did pull equally, however. So, I started in the middle on one side. My next staples would go to the equal opposite side- I felt more in control of the way the burlap laid that way.

 We just slapped down the corners- literally.

 THEN! I wasn't sure what I wanted to do...I have sooo many ideas for this thing. BUT I wanted YOU to start getting ideas, too- so I just picked one idea and went with it. I had metal letters 'FAMILY', actually. I debated on if I should thread the letters to the board with colorful twine...but I couldn't find a needle. SO- I had some 20 guaze wire (from our last craft night) that I used to tie the letters to the board. I loved this because it made the board EVEN more functional. I am ALL about functional. And I LOVE industrial- so it worked!

Here's the board before we hung it. It's pretty plain...think about the goodies you could add!! Burlap flowers, buttons, cute tacks! SOO fun!

 We made a make-shift (we'll fix it tomorrow) hang in the back using the wire and the slap-staples.

 Here it is hanging. (The picture is tacked up there- it's our engagement photo...ah, cute.)

 And here is a family wedding announcement that I can now use a magnet to hang on my letters.

I am soo not done with this board! Give me some more ideas...or better yet, SHOW me your ideas!

Project List:

1- Large Board

1- package quilt batting

2- packages cork tiles

glue gun (three or four glue sticks)

scissors

Staple gun with shallow staples (I used 6mm)

22 gauge wire

wire cutters (or just use your scissors)

Metal letters from Mindy Mae's Market

60x60 inch Burlap also from Mindy Mae's Market