DIY – Bulletin Board

I had this vision of an 8 foot long magnetic bulletin board to go over top of my daughter’s desk. You know who didn’t share that vision? My bank account.

Sheet metal is really expensive. At least for two pieces in the size that we needed to correspond with the length of the desk. They’d have actually cost us more than the cost of making the desk. There went that idea. Then there was the factor that it was going in a kids room and while I liked the industrial look, something told me my daughter wouldn’t be that amused and would wind up asking what the heck I had just mounted on her wall.

In which case here is the budget friendly way we made the bulletin board for her room to make it look like this instead.

We went to Home Depot and picked up some Handi-pacs in the insulation aisle. These were 48″ long meaning that two of them side by side would make for an 8 foot long board, to correspond with the length of the desk.

A trip to IKEA found me at home with a batch of ANNBETH fabric.

Then on a very dark and dreary Fall day, I picked out the section of stripes I wanted with the colours to compliment her room and cut them out.

Pinned the fabric into place to line up my stripes.

Got some of my “I love it but I hate it at the same time, husband t-shirt anniversary craft project ruining” Elmer’s Craft Bond Spray Adhesive and sprayed the glue under the fabric as I removed each pin.

I did NOT spray the entire front of the bulletin board because I was concerned the glue would seep through and alter the colour of the fabric. Only the edges.

Once it was relatively glued on and holding put, I took a staple gun (not an office stapler, a staple gun) and stapled the back of the fabric to the foam board.

We then used some industrial strength Velcro Coins to stick on the back. This was how it was going to be hung on the wall to achieve to avoid any gaps between the wall and the boards.

It is a very nice thick canvas type of fabric.

We also added some wireless LED lights to act as a small desk/nightlight (though they’re currently in heavy competition with the colourful Christmas lights for that title). These are called Lightmates Wireless Puck Lights. Also available on Amazon but we picked them up at Costco. This is to tide her over until she’s a bit older and then we’ll have to drill a hole in the desktop to allow for a cord to pass through in order to have a desk lamp, as the electrical outlet is under her desk.

Or maybe we’ll just get a solar lamp.

We put the lights under the IKEA EKBY JÄRPEN/ EKBY BJÄRNUM shelves. We have these all over our house and they’re by far my favourite IKEA shelf.

They can turn off individually with an individual click or as a group with the wireless remote.

And finally some $10 LAVER chairs from IKEA, which are shockingly sturdy considering how delicate they look. More importantly, you can wipe crayons and markers off of then with ease.

Just a word to anyone who wants to use the Velcro as a wall adhesive, it holds very well and it won’t fall off if you’re concerned, but it will sag approximately 1 cm from the height that you put it at once it settles. So hang it a touch higher than where you want it.

Now if anyone wants to build me a pine EXPEDIT type of shelving unit to go next to the desk, I’ll bake you a batch of cookies. Ok that’s not a promising bribe. A bottle of Wiser’s Whisk perhaps?

Click here for how we made the DIY Filing Cabinet Desk.

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