I need some cork boards for a very specific reason. A three-word reason. I don’t really want to tell you why because it might ruin your mood. Kinda like when stores start selling holiday decorations in September and you’re like “Woah, what about the whole season of fall, and football and Halloween and clambakes. Don’t make me start thinking about winter yet!”
So if you don’t want to get that rushed feeling, then I encourage you to just skip this next sentence. But if you’re a rebel and still reading anyway, don’t blame me if this ruins your mood.
I need these cork boards to prepare for BACK. TO. SCHOOL.
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkk! I said it.
I know summer is not even near being over, but my oldest is starting kindergarten in the fall and I already have a huge stack of paperwork piling up on our kitchen table. Gym uniform pre-order forms. Athletic program sign-up forms. Tuition payments. Vaccination requirements. And probably 10 other forms I haven’t even read yet.
I need to get this stuff OUT of the pile, and hung on the wall where I will be forced to see it everyday! So, I am turning to cork boards.
I found two at Goodwill Twinsburg for just $2 each. I used the 20% off coupon that you get every time you make a donation, so the actual cost was $1.60 each.
I planned to cover them in fabric and excitedly found this huge mint-striped fabric remnant for just $1.60.
To make the frame of the corkboard white, I taped off the inside with newspaper then spray painted the frame with Rustoleum Primer and Rustoleum 2x Ultra Cover in white gloss. You may not need to cover the cork board with tape and newspaper since it will be covered with fabric, but because my fabric had white stripes I was worried about the paint showing through.
Next I laid the cork board on top of the fabric and traced around the frame. This would leave me with about an inch of extra fabric that I could use to fold inward, making a nice clean edge (example shown a few photos down).
Before covering the cork board with the fabric, be sure to iron out any creases and wrinkles.
Now that the fabric is nice and smooth, place it perfectly on top of the corkboard and start folding your edges inward to make a nice clean seam. Do little sections at a time and hot glue in place. I did all the sides first and then saved the corners for last.
After that, the corkboard is complete!! I hung them up in our kitchen and these two saw the camera out and just had to pose for a shot with their toy hammer.
After the boards were hung I felt like they needed a little more flair so I made some quick bunting with scrap fabric I had on hand.
Much better!
So really this just took 3-4 simple steps.
1 – Paint Frame
2 – Cut fabric to size
3 – Glue fabric to frame
4 (optional) – Add bunting if you so choose.
Here they are. Totally and completely staged for this photo. They will soon be covered with pages and pages of kindergarten paperwork. But for now, let’s just enjoy the simplicity. The slow, easy days of summer. The lack of paperwork and crazy schedules. And let’s agree not to mention those three words for at least another month!
Happy Thrifting!
Katie