I finally finished my pin board!!!! It turned out better than I expected. Yeah!! If you follow me on Facebook you know I've had a few bumps along my pin board path. First, the photo below was my inspiration for my pin board. I was going to make a custom shape to fit my space and just wrap the fabric around it and use nail head trim to repeat the shape. But when I got serious about cutting out the shape I just couldn't get a polished picture in my mind. I was afraid it would not look right. So, down to the basement I went looking for something to spark a new idea! (Yes, I realize this seems like my basement must be from an episode of Hoarders, but it's not, well my husband might say different.) Anyways I found this huge old frame I had bought at DI a few years ago!! This frame is 30" x 42", good sized. Mind you it's not much to look at with this old sloppily painted canvas complete with some sticky substance that ran all the way down the front. I was not planning on using the canvas so no problem. I did see beauty in the frame, although it too had some problems. Besides being dirty, and covered with the sticky substance in spots, the filigree was missing in two corners and a few spots on one edge. But I was up for the challenge!! Here is what I did. First, I took out the ugly old picture and cleaned the frame with some soapy water and an old tooth brush. Next, I used DryDex Spackling and filled in the voids on the frame. I tried to carve it as it dried. Not really sure you could call it carving, more like pushing it around with odd tools and my fingers. Then I waited for it to dry. (See inset photos above.) I thought it worked pretty good, but I was really convinced after I saw it primed and painted. With a new shiny coat of Krylon silver spray paint the frame was really looking nice and rich , but I wanted to bump it up a bit. I used a Black Apple Barrel Acrylic Paint mixed with a glaze on the small filigree strip and carved edge. Are you just loving it? (Check out the mended corner in the photo above! Hard to tell don't you think?) Let's leave the frame and move onto the pinning part of the venture. I cut a piece of half inch card board that came off the back of the book shelf we bought for the built-ins. Go here to see it. That means it was free!!! I then bought a package of 4 cork squares for $9. I also snagged this great gray curtain from Target on clearance for $9. Once I had all my supplies I started to assemble the pin board. I glued the 4 Cork Sheets onto my card board base. I used a small left over piece of rolled cork my neighbor gave me to finish it off. I covered the cork and cardboard base with my great curtain find. The curtain is nubby linen like material which makes it easy to push pins in and leaves no holes in the material. On the other hand this loose weave made me nervous that it wouldn't hold when stapling it. My free solution? I cut the cardboard that came with the curtain into small strips to staple through for a stronger hold. (See below) After it was all covered I popped it in the frame and realized the covered board was sticking out the back about 1/4 inch. Solution: I added thin scraps of bead board to give me a more level surface on the back. Now I just had to install my lovely new creation!! Simple, right? No! My choice was to use Command Velcro strips. Worked great for about 1 minute! Then it just fell off the wall onto the desk. Popping off the newly fixed corners!! I wanted to cry!!! (Insert sad face) Apparently the back was still not flat enough. I wanted this board firmly mounted so I could use it with out the whole thing moving around on the wall. After brainstorming with my brilliant husband we just tacked it to the studs with the nail gun. We nailed into the narrow filigree strip and you couldn't even see the nails; no touch up needed. As for the broken corners, they actually popped off in one piece making it easy to glue them back on and touch up with a little bit of paint!! (See below, I dare you to find where I fixed it the second time!) To finish off the space I added this gray Simplify sign. Which my great neighbor Shelley gave me, go here to see how she made it. Now lets just take a gander at this lovely new pin board up close and personal! I love how my neighbor Shelley organized her projects ideas on her pin board so I organized mine in a similar fashion. (Yes, it's fun having great neighbors.) I'm very happy with the finished project, even though it was not my original idea. Just shows that going with the flow can be the best option. It's so big and pretty and functional. Comments? What do you think? Can you tell which corners I fixed? Would love to hear if you have made a pin board. I'm so close to getting done with this office! Thanks for stopping by.