Monday, October 5, 2009

Sprucing Up a Plain Corkboard on the Cheap

I wanted a couple corkboards in our home office for sticking up reminders, photos, and other goodies. I spackled way to many holes when I painted the room a few weeks ago and I wanted hubby to have a place to hang his momentos without putting more holes in the walls.

I picked up a couple cheapo framed corkboards at Wal-Mart for $6 each. They needed a little bit of decoration though because they were a bit blah.

So I taped newspaper over them and sprayed on a nice coat of glossy white Rustoleum spray paint.

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When I pulled off the paper, I noticed some of the paint leaked under. Oops.


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So I went to my scrapbook paper stash and decided to use some paper to add a nice border to cover up the spray paint that strayed from the frame. I measured out the frame and discovered that the inside dimensions were 16" x 22" so I needed 136 inches total of paper to cover the edges of two frames. Using 12x12 paper with 1" strips would be 144 inches (Twelve 1" strips x 12" per strip). Did I lose you with all the math? So basically I figured out one sheet of paper would be enough.

The 1" strip looked a little too wide so I went with 3/4". But one sheet of paper gave me plenty of paper strips to cover the inside edge of both frames. The first paper I tried in the background was a little too girlie with the flowers. So I went with the brown paper with the white tree branches. Because hubby thinks the house is a little too girlie already. And marriage is all about compromise. Even though the flowered paper matched better.

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I started gluing the strips down. At the end of each paper strip, I tried different pieces to see which ones would line up best with the pattern of the tree branches.This kept the seams of the edges from being too obvious.
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After only a few mintues of cutting and gluing, I had two prettier frames.
Project cost:
-2 frames at $6 each = $12
-1 can spray paint = $3
-1 sheet scrapbook paper = free!

Total cost = $15  Making something plain and functional into something happier and prettier=priceless

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Linking up with DIY day on A Soft Place to Land


DIY Day @ ASPTL
 

And Metamorphosis Monday on Between Naps on the Porch



And joining up with From the Same Nest

 
 

And then "I made it without my hubby" on Shanty 2 Chic.

Shanty 2 Chic
And Transformation Thursday on Shabby Chic Cottage 
 



26 comments:

  1. You did a fantastic job! I love the new look! (I always over-spray some area that I'm not supposed to!)

    Thanks for stopping by to see me today too and for your sweet comments. :) It lead me back to you! Now I'm off to check out more of your blog!

    Have a great week!

    Roeshel

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  2. Those are cute! What a great way to keep little reminders! Thanks for visiting! I signed up as a follower and would love it if you did the same!

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  3. What a great idea!!!!

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  4. Way to make lemonade out of lemons! Great idea!

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  5. very cute! Gotta love scrapbook paper :)

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  6. great idea with the scrapbook paper!

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  7. nice job! I love using pretty paper on things other than scrapbooking, since I don't have the patience for making all of those fancy layouts.

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  8. What a wonderful idea! I love how the paper you chose picked up on the bulletin AND frame colour. Such a lovely custom look!

    Donna

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  9. I love it!! Thanks for sharing.

    Kathy :)

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  10. White paint can make so many things awesome! I love the paper.

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  11. Jane @ Finding FabulousOctober 6, 2009 at 12:40 PM

    Sara, I love this idea because it looks great, but it's also easy...and I'm all about that! I've got a new day on Fridays' called Frugalicious Friday where you can link up your fabulously thrifty finds and Diy projects! I hope you can join the party!

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  12. I love what you did with the added paper. Very cute! I have a cork board in my office that might need a redo soon, thanks to you! Thanks for sharing with us at From The Same Nest!

    Maria

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  13. See, this is why I can't do this! There was math involved! They look great!

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  14. great job I really like the boader you put on it! Good luck on your list.

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  15. This is a great idea!! Good job :)

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  16. cute, cute - I'm checking out your old posts now too!

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  17. What a wondeful ideal, I have been going through your older post, great ideals and blog.
    Sandy

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  18. Gosh I love scrapbook paper that is awesome!

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  19. Very nice--I like the tree edging. I had done this before when I used bulletin boards--I did the white frame too!

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  20. The paper is the PERFECT addition!! LOVE it!! Thanks for linking up!!
    ~Whitney

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  21. I really enjoyed looking around your blog! What great ideas!!
    *Eliza’s blog*

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  22. I like it! Great job... I wanna do it now! :)

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  23. Those are lovely. Something beautiful came of a mistake, you have to love that!

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