Oh, this is not an original idea by any means. I came across it on pinterest or blogs, or who knows what else.
I thought it was a great idea for consolidating all my important stuff to one "neat", accessible area.
I am sharing it with you so that maybe you can get some inspiration and ideas to do one that fits your needs and style!
Before:
The grocery list is on the fridge, calendar buried under the stacks of project ideas, bills, order forms, and photos on my crowded work table. The coupons get thrown anywhere from the office hutch to the windowsill and my purse (you know what that is like ladies - yikes!). When I need to find an idea that I want to work on for the shop, it is like sifting through earthquake rubble. Worst of all, my USB drives that contain my master images and listings for the shop are on the windowsill. I know IT folks - not an ideal location by any means.
After:
Googling and blog searching, i finally came up with a solution to fit MY needs.
Plywood was way too expensive and heavy.
OSB (particle board) was just too heavy and ugly for my taste.
I do have plenty of the cedar flooring that was salvaged from the basement walls that I use for the signs in my shop. That is pretty and light weight and I can put picture nails in it easily!
I got to work by laying out what things I needed on my board.
I designed, printed, framed and lay them out in various formats on the floor.
Measured what size back-board I would need.
Lay out the flooring, cut and fastened together. I used a scrap piece, cut in half and used wood glue and screws to hold the slats together.
Fastened a 50lb picture hanging hardware.
Then placed my components and hung everything with pretty little brass picture nails.
The only thing that is not easily moved is the book holder. That needed to be on securely. I made it out of a scrap of 8x10 matte board (you can get them cheap from a framing or craft store). When you bend it into shape it will separate the layers. They can be hot glued into place to keep the form. Yes, I did sew the pocket for added strength (that was time consuming but, the bows are cute). I made the strap from a fabric scrap and 3 rubber bands. Used jewelry rings to clamp the ends together. Hot glued the strap to the back side and hung with 2 nails.
The pencil holder is the container from the bulldog clips. It is covered in the scrap fabric and hot-glued to the magnet board top.
The magnet board is put in a glass-less frame, backed with a matte scrap and hung. I put a nail for the coupon clip so I can remove it and bring it with me on shopping trips.
The USb hooks are just cheap small screw hook that i dipped in hammered copper paint (I have leftover from the deck). They screw easily into the frames I chose. The glass beads don't stick well to the painted frames with the E-600 so, i just hot glued them easy peasy.
I got the cheaper frames, magnet sheet, magnets, scrap matte and scrap fabric from our local craft store Ben Franklin's for under $30! The Expo dry erase with cool magnet/eraser and bulldog clips from the Walmart at under $10. The rest I had laying around. The TIME it took to make was about a week. Most of the time was dedicated to my figuring out what materials to use and what I could re-use from around the house. The actual build time was only 2 days. I had to measure, cut, sand, and wait for the glue to set overnight. The next day was installing the hardware and placing the components and hanging.
I love it.
Here are some products similar to what I used or some cute ideas.
