white board / chalk board / message center

14 years ago

My pre-facelift kitchen had a combination white board and cork board that served as my message/reminder center. It was mounted on the dining room side of a cabinet suspended from a soffit. Now the cabinet and soffit are gone and the wall over my peninsula is now wide open. I'm glad for that, but now realized that I have a larger expanse of wall staring me in the face.

I know many of you would look for the right piece of artwork for that place. In a perfect world, I would do the same. But I'm not really that person and think I would rather have a more practical, utilitarian solution for that space. My old message board is dowdy and funky; it should be retired. But I need a spot that has places for emergency numbers, a few random and spontaneous photos du jour and "CALL MOM!!!" where I can't miss it.

I think I need a new message center. I don't want to paint my wall with chalk board paint, plus it's textured. Does anyone have any recommendations or links to something decent looking? 24x36 would be about right, but I could go a little larger.

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Comments (5)

marcydc
14 years ago
We painted a piece of sheet metal with chalkboard paint and trimmed it with some molding to make a magnetic chalkboard. Easy project and it looks great! Sheet metal in 24x36 is easily found at your local hardware stores.

Pottery Barn as a whole system of things like that if you want to buy something instead.
westiegirl
14 years ago
I don't have mine hung up yet, but I just finished making my own message board. I used a piece of foam insulation board that we had leftover from construction. I then covered it in quilt batting, using spray adhesive to join them. Then I covered it in a fabric I found, again using the spray adhesive. I took my glue gun and used that to attach the edges of the fabric to the back of the board, wrapping and pulling it as neatly as I could. Using my glue gun again, I applied two different colors of ribbons , crossing them in x patterns across the board. Each place where the ribbons crossed each other, I glued a decorative button on.

Push pins easily go into the foam, or I can just tuck notes under the ribbons.

The entire project only took just over an hour and I spent a little over $15 for the fabric and ribbons. I already had the foam (which is fairly inexpensive at Lowes, Home Depot, etc.) quilt batting, buttons and glue.

I wanted a large board to hold all the school papers, calendar, and such, so we made it 40 inches by 68 inches. However, the foam is easily cut to any size you want.

Here is a picture of it sitting in my kitchen, waiting to be hung by DH!
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sosouper
14 years ago
I saw several framed cork boards at Marshalls. The frame was very nice and it almost looked like a picture frame. Some were in the 12" by 12" range and some were much bigger.
Bunny
Original Author
14 years ago
Ooh, good ideas! As soon as I created this thread, I stumbled upon several others that have good info. I realize that just because my kitchen has gotten a facelift, I still need the same old message center functionality, maybe just a little nicer looking. Thanks all for your suggestions!
JaneWalt34
14 years ago
Go to www.Incrediline.com

They have white board wall decals for cheap at whatever size you like. It's the easiest peel and stick wall decal I have any done.

Here is a link that might be useful: INCREDILINE