Amazingly Stylish DIY Cork Board You Will Want to Make

Hello and welcome to Landeelu.com!

I’ve slowly but surely been putting together my home office and am finally getting around to all of the fun details!  I made a DIY Cork Board for above my desk and it has added the perfect mix of added style and much needed function!   Read on to see how I created it below!

I had a couple of things to figure out in order to make this work.  First of all, I needed a very specific size.  I wanted it to take up the entire space above my desk and determined that I needed it to be about 60″x20″.  Well, I don’t know if you have searched online for any bulletin boards that size, but they don’t exist!

So I ended up getting two of these foam core/cork boards (affiliate) which are 30″x 20″ each.  I wasn’t sure how I would put them up together but I knew that gave me the exact size I needed.  My main concern was just making them look cute!  So I painted them both white (with just regular white acrylic craft paint) and then got to work creating my design.

Here is what you’ll need to make a DIY Cork Board too!

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• (2) Cork boards measuring 20×30 inches
• Yard stick and pencil
• Craft paints in colors of your choice (the ones I used are below)
• 1×2 inch common boards, cut to make a frame around outside of both cork boards
• Velcro Hangables or Velcro Hangables
• Hammer and nails or Nail Gun (that is the one I have and I love it!)
• Brass L-Brackets (optional, but a fun detail!) and drill
• Painters Tape

STEP ONE: After painting cork board white and allowing plenty of time for it to dry and cure, it is then time to start creating your design!  I took my yard stick and made a mark (in pencil) along the edges every inch.  I did this along both long sides of each piece of cork board.

STEP TWO:  Since I knew I wanted to make an arrow type design, with the arrows coming together in the middle, I knew I needed to create the exact same pattern on each cork board.  I also knew I wanted the points of my arrows to be in the exact middle of the boards.  So I measured to 10 inches (the exact middle of my 20″ side) on both ends of my board and made a mark, lined up both marks with my yard stick, and made a faint pencil line all the way down the middle of my board.  I then made 1″ marks along that line as well.

STEP THREE:  Now I was all set to begin making my arrow pattern!  I knew I wanted my arrows to be at a 90 degree angle.  My middle line was 10″ from the bottom, so I counted back 10″ along the side and drew a faint pencil line (using the yard stick) connecting them.  I then wanted my next arrow/stripe to be 2″ wide.  So I counted 2″ back on my middle line and then 2″ more along my edges and connected those.  I continued to do this, varying the width of my arrows/stripes as I went.   I really didn’t have a pattern in mind before I started, or what colors would go where. I just eyeballed it and created random widths as I went.

STEP FOUR:  I then did the EXACT SAME PATTERN on the other cork board.

STEP FIVE: I then used my painters tape to start masking off my stripes and got to painting!  The fun part!

STEP SIX:  Paint your 1×2 common boards your desired color.  These will be your frame!  I chose white to keep it nice and simple.

STEP SEVEN:  Just making sure everything lined up well… thank goodness it did!

STEP EIGHT:  After your boards are dry, fit them around your two corkboards as snugly as possible.  I didn’t want my bulletin board to be too heavy so I opted out of attaching it to some kind of backer board.  Just having the cork boards and framing wood kept it very light and easy to hang.  So make sure your boards frame your cork boards snugly enough to keep it all in place.   Use your brad nailer to put the frame together.  NOT PICTURED:  Add brass L-brackets if desired to corners!

STEP NINE AND TEN: Peel off backing of the Velcro Hangables (I chose these because they were big enough to stick to both the frame and the back of the cork boards at the same time, creating some stability, AND they are super low profile so they won’t show even from the side!  I love that!)  Then, follow the instructions to pair the Hangables up and peel off the other side to stick to the wall.

STEP ELEVEN: Use a level and lift up your bulletin board into place and then press against the wall.  So easy to hang this way!  I did end up putting a couple nails (one in each upper corner of the entire thing) to secure it but I love the Hangables to get it exactly where I wanted it to be before I did that.  With something this long and awkward it was a life saver!

Below are the colors I used, along with white.

It’s like a piece of art now!  I kind of don’t even want to pin anything up on it because then it would be all covered up… but, I totally still will.  🙂

** PIN IMAGE BELOW FOR LATER! **

My home office is getting more and more inspiring and enjoyable to work in with every project!  You can see my IKEA Hack Work Table below.  THAT was a life-changer!

IKEA Hack Work Table

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