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

Pottery Barn Kids Inspired

Morena really outdid herself on this one:

I love to ogle the Pottery Barn Kids catalog when it shows up in my mailbox, but I can't bring myself to spend *that* much on some of their pieces.  I wanted to turn our breakfast nook into a family workspace where we could do homework and craft together, but I didn't want to spend a lot on it.  By turning to PBK for inspiration and then shopping my house I was able to come up with a room I am very happy with!

 This was an old poster frame that was on it's way to Goodwill.  I found a dry erase board (24 by 36 inches) at Hobby Lobby that fit inside it.  I found the shelf/hook unit at Michael's.  I used Colonial Red spray paint on both pieces to make them match, then hung them together so they look like one cohesive piece.  That cute Come In sign is from Mindy Mae's Market.

 This was an old frame I used to hate.  Amazing what spray paint can do!  I had the calendar made with our family's picture at Vistaprint for free.  One piece of wall art finished for almost nothing!

 I spray painted this frame as well and used my Silhouette cutter to make the subway art (this clip art was purchased from the silhouette store).  I then used transfer tape to apply the vinyl directly to the glass.

 For the art corner, I spray painted some wood pieces from Michael's and cut them to frame an old magnet board I had purchased at IKEA years ago.  The magnets were made using old milk bottle caps purchased at a flea market.

  A picture of the magnet board in progress.

Would you believe I only used one can of spray paint to paint everything? Yeah, its true!

 The caddies were labeled as "CD Holders" at Michaels.  They were also spray painted, and then I added the craft buckets which I already had.  The kids love having easy access to their supplies!

And here is the room in action.  I love that we have a place where we can work and craft together, and have everything we need in easy reach!  I also love the fact that I was able to upcycle so many items I already had.  Instead of buying new things, I was able to give new purpose to things I thought I no longer needed.

Isn't it total fab?! Love that Morena! Be sure to check out her blog for more tutorials! xoxo

 

I hope this inspires you to shop your house for your next project!  I hope you'll visit my corner again, or  follow my blog!  Comments and suggestions are appreciated!

Front Door Lovin'

Ursie is amazing and she is the sweetest thing!  She is even kind enough to share her stinkin' cute door decor with us!

I LOVE changing out our front door decor.

I have a feeling this piece will probably stay for a while, it's cute, and super functional!

I'll show ya how I made it! :)

First up, I got these frames at Mindy Mae's Market.

I'm pretty much obsessed with these frames!!! Really.

They are made so nicely, great to paint, cover with paper or fabric, all of which I have done!

I also showed you these pillows I got from them, if you missed it, check out this .

Since this was going on the front door, I didn't want it to over the top or seasonal looking, so I went with a nice aqua blue color.

I painted it front and back.

{see that paint on the table? comes off easy so I didn't mind it getting on our dining room table}.

After it was painted, I got a piece of sheet metal that fit inside perfectly, {this frame was 5x7, although you can do any size}.

I used a thin bead of hot glue in the back to make sure it was secure.

Then I grabbed some sand paper, and roughed up the edges to make it distressed. You could use some distress ink if you'd like, I liked the way that it looked so I left it as is.

You could sand it before you put the sheet metal in, but I was to excited to get it put together! :)

Next up, some flowers....

Since I'm kinda addicted to Mindy Mae's, I have a ton of these sweet little flowers.

They're called Cabochons {I'm yet to figure out how to pronounce that word}.

Anyways, I grabbed a few that would coordinate with the front door area....

so many fun colors to choose from.....

I found these little tiny magnets at my local craft store. They have an adhesive side on them.

They were a bit large for the base of my cabochons, so a scissors took care of that for me!

I stuck the magnets to the flowers.

And got some ribbon to hang the frame from.

Some hot glue adheres the ribbon to the frame.

I hot glued some flowers to the front of the frame. And wa-laa!!!

So cute for the front door.

As I have mentioned before, I use tiny little nails and nail in whatever is on the door on the upper edge of the door...leaving the nail out stick out a bit to be able to pull out, but yet not touch the top of the door frame.

Now we have a message board to add fun little notes on the front door.

I have been known to leave messages for the UPS man, like please walk my box to the door, don't just throw it...

I really have not left that note, although I should!!!!! But really....I asked him to leave my box and signed the paper because I was not sure if it was a signature required item and I was not home.

Hah!

I was really liking the way that it looked, but it just needed one more touch:

Twine and fabric fix everything!!

I cut some little triangles to make a tiny bunting!

Here it is opened up. Make sure to cut when the fabric is folded.

I just laid the twine along the top of the fold, put some hot glue in there, and squished it together!

Yay!

I used a dab of hot glue on the back, so if I want to change out the bunting, it will be super easy!

LOVE!

I will be honest, I don't know a Mary, but it was the first name that popped into my head, so I went with it!

I have left an envelope taped to the door before if someone was coming to my house and I was not going to be home. But now, I have a place to put the note!

It even looks super cute with no note!

Like I said, this may stay up for a while, or it would be great to add on the side of the house for notes, if you have a wreath on the door.

I Love Fun and Functional!