Chic magnetic and push pin boards that are easy to make

Christmas is right around the corner! With a little extra time on my hands, now that the kids are out of school, I thought I'd help organize my daughter's room. She LOVES to draw and her artwork will generally end up taped to the wall. Instead of discouraging her from doing that, I thought we'd both work together on a project I think is easy enough for just about anyone to do. With her help, I created 3 message boards for her to use to display her art and anything else she was interested in sharing with the world.

I rummaged through some of the fabric I use to create the photography backdrops I sell to find some that worked well in her room. I found a pretty pink/taupe mini damask pattern and a robin egg blue and white large damask pattern. I LOVE these fabrics!!! They are some of the most popular in my shop.


We had 2 wall areas I wanted to cover so I decided 3 large frames would do the trick. My goal was to create one tack board to put above her craft table, and a magnetic board and combo magnetic / marker board to combine above her bed.

The materials, supplies and tools I needed:
3 Old Frames (I had 1 with glass and 2 without)
gloves
Enough fabric to fit in each frame
Metal Sheets (for 2 frames)
Fabric glue spray
Cork or Foam Board that comes from frame
Rotary fabric cutter
Utility Shears to cut metal
Duct Tape

I stopped by Goodwill to look for some frames. I purchased 3 large ones for about 20 bucks. I think that was a little much considering I could have found them much cheaper at a yard sale. But hey, it's for a good cause right? One had glass and 2 didn't. That was ok. I would be making one a push pin board so no glass would be used there. One would be a magnetic board so no glass is required for that one. And the 3rd board I wanted to make magnetic with glass so she could also write messages on it with an Expo Marker.


So here's one of the ugly frames. I stripped the back off and got it ready for painting. I used a little birthday wax candle I had left over from a party and rubbed it lightly on the edges.I spray painted it antique white and let it dry completely.

Now I needed to cut the metal so I could wrap the fabric around it. I used the chipboard that came with the frame and placed it on top of the metal sheet I found at Lowes. This would help me outline the exact size that fits inside the frame using a sharpie. You will need to use gloves to cut the metal sheet with the utility shears. They are VERY VERY sharp.





Save the extra pieces for other projects!

Get the fabric ready by ironing if you need to. Place the same chipboard you used to outline the metal to cut out the fabric using a rotary cutter. Before you cut, double check the pattern looks the way you want it to. Cut it just a tiny tad larger than the metal sheet you just cut so that it will eventually wrap around the metal but not by much.

It's time to glue the fabric to the metal sheet. You decide how best to do this but I sprayed the metal and laid the fabric down carefully on top. Gently smoothing out the bubbles paying mind to the sharp edges while doing so. Now you know why the fabric should be a little larger than the metal sheet. You can see from the picture below on the far right hand corner on the bottom, the fabric didn't quite cover the metal sheet but it was still fine since it would not be seen inside the frame.



Grab the frame and gently rub or scratch the edges and it will easily distress the wood because the spray paint didn't adhere where the wax was applied. At this point you can either place the glass back in the frame if it has it or place the fabric covered metal sheet in the frame without it.

I used the chipboard and mat that came with the picture to secure the back. As you can see I placed it facing out so you could see what I was doing. You can make it as pretty or as "not pretty" as you would like. I was in a bit of a hurry so I just plopped it in and duct taped it. The key is to make sure it's nice and snug so that the sheet doesn't bow out the front but isn't so loose it moves when you push on it from the front.

Here are the pair, both magnetic one with glass


And some cute little magnets I made with some pretty glass rocks I found at Hobby Lobby.


The tack boards or push pin boards are created the same way but in my case I just used the foam board that came with one of the picture frames but you can use corkboard instead. Treat it as you did the metal sheet and wrap the fabric around it instead. Here's the picture of the "non-magnetic" pin board before I plopped it in the frame.





Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!