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Our Easy DIY Fabric Bulletin Board

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I can’t believe it’s August…which means school starts in about 10 seconds.

Which means moms everywhere are about to start stockpiling crayons and pencils and Elmer’s glue.

Which means your kids are about to come home each day with 8,493 worksheets and reminders and permission forms.

And that’s exactly why this latest DIY — especially for those of us without a palatial mud room — is going to save your life and sanity.

Trust me. This DIY fabric-covered bulletin board is easy, inexpensive, and doesn’t require any crazy power tools or advanced DIY skills. And it’s just the thing you need to make before your kids head back to school!

Tackling the Paper Clutter Challenge

If you follow me on Instagram, chances are that you’ve heard me mention the fact that my 1980s colonial doesn’t have a mud room.

There’s barely any space for me to create a makeshift one, either. We enter the house every day through the door that’s attached to our garage, and that door leads you straight into the kitchen. And next to no free wall space.

There’s literally nowhere to put a pair of shoes, let alone organize all the paper clutter that comes home in everyone’s backpacks.

So using the very little wall space I have between our kitchen and the dining room, I decided to create a small command center using just three things: a wire wall basket with two pockets, one wall hook, and a DIY fabric-covered pin board.

You won’t believe how simple it is to make this DIY fabric-covered bulletin board….so let’s get to it!

What You Need to Make a DIY Fabric-Covered Pin Board

The supply list for this DIY is pretty short — nothing fancy required.

To make this DIY fabric-covered pin board, you’ll need about 30 minutes and these supplies:

  • A cork board in the size of your choice with a wood frame (I used an 18×24 board because it fit perfectly on my sliver of wall space. Amazon has some great deals on cork boards, and many of them come with free two-day shipping if you’re a Prime member.)
  • A staple gun (also purchased this on Amazon because…..#twodayshipping)
  • Fabric in a color or pattern of your choice (a thicker, good quality fabric is best, and to make this DIY totally hassle-free I recommend choosing a graphic print like a floral or something that’s abstract — more on that in a minute)
  • Nail heads (optional, but I purchased this kind of nail heads and think they really elevated the look of the pin board)
  • 3M Command Strips (for hanging your board)

How to Make a DIY Fabric Bulletin Board

This DIY is so easy (trust me, because I am not the greatest DIY’er and I think this is a piece of cake). Don’t be fooled by the number of steps below — I shared lots of extra (useful) details to make this project as simple as possible for you!

Step 1: Iron your fabric if needed to get any wrinkles out. Or if you’re lazy like me, you can use spray wrinkle releaser — it’ll do the trick.

Step 2: Lay your fabric on your work space (a tabletop or the floor are easiest) with the patterned side facing down.

Step 3: Trim the fabric on all sides of the board if needed. You only need 2-3″ of extra fabric on each side of the board. Keeping too much excess fabric will make it difficult to staple the fabric to the board.

Step 4: Place your pin board on top of the fabric, and center it as best you can. If you’re using a geometric or striped fabric, make sure your pin board is even with the patterns or lines so that it’ll be straight once you start stapling the fabric. If you’ve selected a floral or abstract-type fabric like I did, you don’t need to worry about this step.

Step 5: Stretch your fabric over one of the long sides of the board and staple it down onto the wood frame (don’t staple it into the cork — I made that mistake and your staple will punch right through the back of the board). I placed my staples 2-3″ apart, and left about an inch of open space at the edges of the board.

Step 6: Stretch your fabric over the opposite side of the board and staple it down onto the wood frame, repeating step #5. It is important that you stretch the fabric tightly over this second side. If you don’t, you’ll wind up with loose fabric on the front of your board….yuck. Grab your partner or one of your kids and ask them to help you hold the fabric in place while you staple.

Step 7: Repeat step 5 for the remaining sides of the pin board. Again, leave about an inch of open space near all the corners (aka, don’t staple right up to the corner!).

Step 8: Okay, now for the corners. To close up each corner of your DIY fabric bulletin board, grab the loose fabric that’s right where two edges of the board meet (it should look like a point) and pull it back over the board — the fabric should be centered between your closest staples on each side of the board. Pull it tightly and staple it into place. The fabric should look a little bit like it has “wings” that stick out on either side of that edge. Take each “wing,” tuck the excess fabric inside of it, and press the folded piece of fabric down against the board. Pull it tightly and staple. If you’re nervous about this step, watch this video — it’ll show you exactly how to fold the fabric around the corners of the board.

Step 9: Repeat step 8 for all of the remaining corners.

Step 10: (Optional, but a fun addition) Flip your board over and add some nailhead trim if you’re feeling fancy. I added the nailhead trim to ours and I personally think it really elevates the board. Nailhead trim is SO easy to install. All I did for this final step was press gently on the front of the board to feel where the cork meets the wood, and added nailhead trim just in the corners. All you need to do is press the nail heads gently into the fabric and cork. No tools required.

Our DIY Fabric Pin Board — The End Result

Here’s our DIY pin board, hung proudly on the wall as part of our tiny command center. I hung it up using 3M Command Strips (my favorite product to use for hanging just about everything):

To round out our command center, I added a wall-mounted wire basket with two pockets for the kids’ school papers (I snagged mine at Michael’s Stores a while ago, but this one is similar), along with one wall hook to hold a backpack or a jacket.

What do you think? Are you thinking of making your own DIY bulletin board? It’s super simple — do it! You’ll be so happy with the end result.

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Jayne

Monday 20th of April 2020

Great idea and makes a change from boring corkboard! I love the beautiful blues too!

Kate

Monday 20th of April 2020

Thank you, Jayne! I've always admired fabric-covered corkboards that some of my favorite retailers carry, but they're crazy expensive so I decided to make my own. I'm really happy with how it turned out!

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