Tweekin the office with a new {Free} hand-made cork board
Hi Friends!
First off, thanks for voting for Lindsay. I have THE BEST readers. Srsly. You guys are amazing.
I’ve been hanging moulding all.day.long. I’m so excited to show you, but I’m going to keep you in suspense just a little longer; mainly because I’m too lazy to unload the camera at the moment. Bawahahaha. I swear though, a serious moulding post in coming. I pinkie swear.
My office is a train wreck. It really needs an entire overhaul. Last time I showed you, it looked like this: I’ve since moved the shelf on the desk to the top of the file cabinet.
I’m in no position to overhaul my office at the moment. However, I got sick and tired of looking at this trash all over the wall…
I promise, you guys, I do try to stay clean and organized.
One day, as I was staring at papers taped all over the wall, it hit me. I need a cork board.
But I don’t want to spend any money.
So I improvised. Here’s how I created a cork board for FREE. If you think outside the box just a teensy tiny bit, you can create all sorts of free stuff for your house!
First, I gathered up my supplies. I had all of these random things on hand. Good thing I hoard.
* Cork Board from Goodwill awhile ago
* Frame I’ve had for years
* Foam board I use to take close-up pics on (guess I’ll need another one of those. Oops.)
I cut the foam board to fit inside the frame.
Pretty easy except that dag-gum foam stuff was like trying to cut lots of little roly polies.
Now it’s time to glue the cork to the foam board. I would have used spray adhesive, which would probably work the best, but I don’t have any, so I improvised. Basically, I smeared huge amounts of E-6000 all over the foam board, smoothed the cork on top of it, stacked books on top of that, and let it dry for a good 12 hours.
When the E-6000 was dry, I just trimmed the excess cork off. And I kept the scraps. Because I’m a horder. Will I ever find a use for them? Maybe. Probably not. But maybe.
During all this hubub I also spray painted the frame on top of my air conditioner in my back yard. That is, until it started making a funny noise. Then I had to move my frame. Oops.
Finally the cork and frame were rearin’ and ready to go. So I did what any cheap-o crafty person that doesn’t want to spend a penny or take more than 5 seconds to figure out a solution would do. I hot glued the foam board into the frame.
Very classy and professional, I know. Michael’s framing department’s got nuthin’ on me.
So now I’m done. Except I’ve realized I don’t have any tacks. Crap.
I found some flat round thumbtacks in my tool kit in the garage. They came in a little kit with some nails and stuff.
But they aren’t cute. No they are not. This will not do. (Do those sentences remind you of Dr Seuss or is it just me?)
So, again, I did what any cheap-o crafty person that doesn’t want to spend a penny or take more than 5 seconds to figure out a solution would do. I hot glued the tacks to the backs of any accessories I could find within arms reach of where I was sitting.
I told you I would find a cool use for my FAIL cactus! I bet you didn’t even believe me. I just have to gloat.. I officially reused both FAIL items and made them cool; my coffee filter wreath & now my cactus. Booo-ya.
And as for the other two items… I bought the Beverly Hills plate in, well, take a wild guess. And I made that little Starry night picture (cut the image out of a magazine and glued it to a piece of mat board) when I was in 7th grade. I’m not joking. I really made it in 7th grade. And I still have it. And I still lurve it. A lot.
Finally. Finally, oh sweet Dear Lord baby Jesus (Name that movie!) I’m done.
And now, now that I have an adorable tack board so my office doesn’t look so crappy, I decided to trash-ify it with chicken-scratch notes. ‘Cause that’s how I roll.
Because everyone’s a sucker for a good Before and After:
Ciao!
Now Go. And Craft! And love it.
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Welcome to House of Hepworths! HoH is primarily a Home Blog that specializes in DIY projects and renovations, crafts, and decorating. My name is Allison. My family and I live in Austin, Texas. I'm married to Ben and have two children, a 10 year old son and an almost-8 year old daughter. To find out more or to contact me click 
I have a DIY corkboard on the “mega-huge-overwhelming-makes-me-need-a-xanax” list of things to do. NOW I have fun DIY tacks to add to that!! Thanks, HoH. Thanks.
Gotta Xanax you can send my way?
I’ll take a stab at the movie name: “Talladega Nights.” Thankyouverymuch.
Loving the cork board — I need one of those myself and now I know how to make one! Thanks!
Best,
Kimberly
I love this idea! I don’t have that much desk area so all my junk ends up in the drawers. Hids well but doesn’t end well!
I just adore this website and your awesome idea…therefore…I take a button!! Have a great day!
No fair!! You cleaned between shots!! Bwahahaha!!!
Love your new cork board…!!!
Hugs
SueAnn
It is amazing how that one piece changed that wall! Looks fabulous and I love the apple green paint!
Lovely! I need to make one myself! TFS.
Love it! I make tacks, too – lately out of rocks the kids find. It helps keep their “collection” smaller. Texas granite makes nice tacks.
LUV reading your blog. Not only is it chocked full of crafty goodness and great tips, but I totally relate to your thought process and love your sence of humor! The only problem is that my to-do list is getting oh so very long because I keep seeing projects on your blog that I want to do, but lack the time.
Let me know when you have come up with a project on how to clone yourself! Keep up the great work. Cheers!
Love it! Great idea with the tag board and cork board combo.
your pin board turned out beautiful!! you could even paint the cork white;-)
cheers,
Sibylle
Wow nice project i love that apple green color.
You never cease to crack me up. The room looks great!
I have now spent the better part of the last three days going through your blog posts.
LOVE IT! LOVE them, LOVE you!
You have incentivized me to start crafting AGAIN & to tackle small things that I usually leave for the huzz to do that doesn’t get done in the amount of time I NEED IT TO!.
Thank you. You totally rock, life fo sho, yo.
Looks great. I love the set up of your office.
LOVE it! Love the color, love the organization, love the creativity, LOVE the FREE!!
Allison, I have a big compliment for you… my almost 15 year old, very particular daughter just leaned over my shoulder, looked at your cork board and said “ooo, I want that”! And I want it too! I didn’t even know that you could buy cork in rolls like that. Now I have the perfect thing to make with the frames I just bought from GW. Super. I like it when a plan comes together!
I love the color and especially the cute “tacks” you made! Now I’m looking around the house trying to find cute “things” to use as tacks! Thanks for posting such a great idea!
Great job! Offices and papers and notes and all of that is so hard to organize, isn’t it?
You are queen crafty! Your blog is so much fun and I am your newest follower!
Delighted Momma
I featured this yesterday! http://www.smallfineprint.com
Oh my gosh – I happened upon your blog and I laughed all the way through this post. I love it! You’re writing (and crafting) style is fabulous – can’t wait to dig through your other posts! Thanks!