One of my new year’s inspirations has been to make good on some unfinished projects lying around the house.  I’ve resolved not to start any new projects, or buy new supplies*, until I’ve used some of my existing inventory.  This graphic gray and cream fabric from Annie Selke has been sitting around for years, just waiting for me  to do something with it.  It was a rather large remnant, so even after recovering a throw pillow (which you can see here), I still had enough leftover for another task.  So I decided to make an old-school inspiration board.  While I love using pinterest and bloglovin and other online boards to compile resources, this board will be used to gather fabric swatches, photos and handwritten notes.  I had a really old bulletin board that I hadn’t thrown out, just for this purpose, and with some scissors, glue gun, and nailhead trim, I was good to go.

Instructions:

1.   Lay the (ironed) fabric with the front side facing the floor (or table) and place the bulletin board on top, so that you have at least a 2-inch allowance around the board.  (You can also use foam insulation board, cut from your local hardware store, if you don’t happen to have a bulletin board lying around like I did.)

2.   Using a glue gun, glue the fabric onto the frame of the back of the bulletin board.  Do one side at a time, making sure to pull the fabric tight as you go.  If you start with the side of the board, do the opposite side next.  Likewise, if you start with the top, do the bottom next.  When you are ready to glue the opposite side, give your fabric a good pull so the front is nice and tight.  For the corners, I like to cut a L-shape out to get rid of the excess fabric and keep a cleaner finish.

3.   Now you can either stop and enjoy the clean finish of your fabric, or decide to do add something extra.  I had a box of nailheads lying around (no joke) so I decided to give mine a border.  Starting with the center top, I placed single railheads along the inside frame of the bulletin board.  Now I understand why the package called for a rubber mallet (which I don’t have), so it required a little more effort than I had anticipated and the box of nailheads barely covered half of the top of my 2×3 foot board.  Do I buy more individual nailheads or go for the nailhead trim?  I opted for the latter and after logging onto Amazon to buy this trim, I had to put my project on hold.

4.  Fast forward two days and I had my nail head trim in hand.  You can easily cut the trim where needed and only have to push in the individual nailheads about every 5 heads.  Voila!  I finished it up before my 30-minute HGTV show even finished.  While I wouldn’t use the trim for furniture or other projects where you need a cleaner look, it worked out great for the inspiration board and now I have another 3 yards left to make something else.  Any suggestions?

*(except to finish up existing projects, like the nailhead trim!)