DIY Restoration Hardware Bulletin Board

I love Restoration Hardware's Marseilles Linen Pin Board and had visions of hanging it on a wall in my kitchen so that I could pin up all of the little things (coupons, invitations, magazine page cut-outs, etc.) that end up in a messy, unorganized pile on my desk. 

So why didn't I just buy one and slap it up in my kitchen?   #1 It's expensive - the smallest sized pin board is $349.  #2 The wall that I wanted to put a bulletin board on has a light switch that is in a horrible location, leaving only about 18" of space to the left of it.  Due to the location of the studs in that wall, it would be a pretty extensive (and expensive) project to move the switch.

My solution? A little DIY project:

I headed to Hobby Lobby for some supplies - my first stop was the ready-made frame section where they have rustic wood frames in about 10-12 different sizes.  They frequently go on sale at 50% off so you can get them at a very reasonable price.

Here's a close-up (with a sneak peek preview of one of my bulletin boards) to show you the reclaimed wood look of the frames complete with old nail holes:

While at Hobby Lobby, I also bought two cork boards, a few picture hangers, and a yard of fabric in a neutral cotton that looked like linen.  I then dug through my craft arsenal for my glue gun and staple gun and was ready to rock.

The Hobby Lobby frames don't have any hangers attached so my first step was to add some ring hangers onto the frame's back.  Then I measured the recessed area on the back of the frame where my cork board would be placed.

Next, I cut the cork board to my measured size using a utility knife - the key to this step is to make your cuts on the FRONT side of the cork board.  This way, the edges around the front side of the cork board stay relatively straight (the back side will look like a mess but there's no worries - you won't see it).  The next step was to wrap my fabric around the cork board and staple gun it to the back.

Finally, I used my glue gun to make a line of glue along the recessed edge of the frame where my fabric-covered cork board will be placed (you have to work fast gluing so that the first glue hasn't dried by the time you've made it all the way around the frame), and then laid my cork board in the frame and applied pressure for a minute or two until the glue had dried.  To make sure that the cork board was secure in the frame, I then glued between the cork board and the frame all the way around the back of the frame.

After repeating this process two more times and then putting screws into the wall at the correct locations for the ring hooks on the frames, I got my framed cork boards up on the wall and pinned on most of the pile of coupons, invites, etc. that were on my desk.  I added an Anthropologie Zinc "J" to fill the space to the right of my light switch, replaced the switch cover with a decorative one,  and voilá - my DIY Restoration Hardware Bulletin Boards were complete:

By using three bulletin boards, I was able to maximize the usable space on my wall and it looks much more balanced than if I just had one tall, skinny board to the left of my light switch.

You may notice that somewhere in the middle of this project, I painted my kitchen - the new color is Benjamin Moore's annapolis gray, which is a nice taupey gray. 

Update! 

Several months later I changed up my bulletin boards by replacing the natural linen fabric with a black and cream ticking stripe fabric and I also painted the switch cover black. I'm loving the new look! For the full post on my bulletin board update, go {here}. 

Have a good one!