How to Re-Cover an Old Bulletin Board

I am in the process of re-doing the whole color scheme of my sewing room. It was all pastels, but in our new home, everything is earth tones. I REALLY wanted to keep my pastels but until I have a room that can be shut off from the rest of the house, that just won’t work.

 

The problem is that you walk straight from the sewing room into the kitchen and from there into the dining room. It’s very open and as Maria from Colour Me Happy so rightly points out…we needed a marriage between these rooms and their color schemes. As you can see…I had a serious problem!



So little by little, I’m making the room over. The easy (though sentimentally painful) part was packing up the old pastel blue and pink decor. It will have to wait for a teenager to head off to college I guess before it will have a room to grace.  Then I took my border which has yet to be installed in the kitchen and Rebekah, my daughter, and I set off for some fabric bargain shopping.




We bought the whole bolt of this guazy plaid fabric (at $.0.50/yd!) because the colors perfectly matched the green and cream I wanted. Those are the colors of my wallpaper throughout most of the house. It also did not clash with  the previously purchased French rooster border. (I was replacing the southwestern decor with antique looking roosters.)  I wanted the sewing room to have a ‘spring’ feel..but bright spring green wasn’t a good replacement for the pastels..I needed something a shade dustier.



So, now we’ve got slip covers to sew from creamy white upholstery fabric (1.99/yard on clearance), and table top and portable desk top covers to make from the plaid gauze.  I did buy a new floral centerpiece for the room (50% off at Hobby-Lobby) and two prints from our local thrift store that are perfect!! Now I need to paint the frames and perhaps the curtain rod in the room with the dusty green spray paint I got from Wal-Mart.   I’m waiting for my mom’s help for painting the room. :o)



The first project was to re-cover the bulletin boards to match the new decor. They were very cheap from the thrift store..and were really tacky, in my opinion. Here’s how we did it.



First we removed and saved the hanging hardware, and then removed all the covers and ribbon.



Then I laid the plaid on the diagonal and very carefully pinned it in place. It was a bit stretchy, so I really had to be careful with all those obvious lines needing to be straight!



I cut around the top and sides first where I  had the least amount of fabric and then cut off the excess yardage at the bottom.

I wanted enough border to be able to fold it under.

Then I stapled it all in place. My hubby told me to hammer the staples in afterward if they didn’t go all the way in. 

I also stapled all the ribbons where we wanted them. We pinned the ribbons on the board like a gift package with overlapping ribbon on the top, sides and bottom. Then we cut a separate piece just to make a bow. It used exactly one spool of ribbon to do the whole thing. (about 3 yds.)

Next we chose some buttons from the button tin to put where the old flowers and decor used to be and hot glued them in place. I love th  new cordless hot gun that my sister gave me for Christmas!

It was only afterward that I realized we need something more as the buttons looked a wee bit plain. So I dug through my gift wrap dresser and found some wire ribbon and pinched it on one side into a flower shape. I just glued it in place. 

Now…for the second board! But already I think the room is starting to look very complimentary to the country style and earth tones of our new home.  Don’t you?

I had so much fun that I decided to share this at Shabby Chic Cottage’s Transformation Thursday and Shabby Nest's Frugal Friday...two great websites for inexpensive and creative home decor!  Drop by and tell them I sent you! If you have a great project, there’s probably plenty of time to add a link to your latest project!

Happy Homemaking!
Donna