Sunday, March 25, 2012

Sore thumb, happy face

After reading in bed until 2:30 a.m., sleeping in until 10:30 a.m., and then proceeding to lay in bed until noon reading my book, I decided it was time to get up and be at least a little bit productive.  (Especially since my fabulous husband had been at work since 6 a.m. while I slept.)  So I got up, made lunch, and then finished my book.  (Hey, it is my day off and I am a total book worm.)  But THEN I decided to be productive!  I've been working in Dave's hobby room and knew just what project was perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

I'll be the first to admit, covering cork boards in fabric isn't exactly what one would call a unique idea, but it is a project that can change the look of a room nonetheless.  Several years ago I bought & sloppily covered a few cork boards with fabric Dave picked out:
I knew I could improve these DIY cork boards dramatically so I decided to do it properly to counterbalance the extreme laziness of my morning.

Required materials: cork board, fabric, fabric scissors, adhesive spray, thumb tacks, and a hot glue gun.  (Although, I ended up not using the hot glue gun when all was said and done.)
STEP 1: iron the fabric.  In typical lazy-girl fashion, I tried to just toss the pieces of fabric in the dryer to get rid of the wrinkles but that sadly didn't do the trick so I had to iron.  (Which is quite possibly my least favorite household chore, by the way.)
STEP 2: spray the adhesive onto the cork board.
STEP 3: place the fabric on the cork board as desired.  Smooth out any wrinkles or air bubbles.



STEP 4: secure the corners with thumb tacks.
STEP 5: line the edges with thumb tacks.  I'll admit it.  This part hurts your thumb after a while...but it's something you can easily do while sitting on the couch watching TV.  :)  I tried to keep the tacks relatively straight and somewhat evenly spaced.
Almost done and liking the way it looks!!!

STEP 6: fold the fabric over the sides and secure them with thumb tacks.  (I originally planned to use my hot glue gun, but figured this would actually take more effort for the same result.)  I tucked and folded the fabric kind of like you would wrap a present - - I won't lie, each corner was folded a bit differently, but you can't tell from the front.



STEP 7: Flip it over and enjoy the finished product!
I really like the way this turned out.  Now I just have to repeat the process twice more and get little hangers for the back.  I will say I was surprised at how many thumb tacks this small cork board took - 110 on the front alone!  So once I make a trip to the store tonight for more thumb tacks I'll be able to tackle the other 2 cork boards and get them hung in the hubby's hobby room.  Pictures of that to come soon!

So what do you think of this easy and cheap project?  Just think how cute this could be with some girly fabric.  :)

No comments:

Post a Comment