An Office Makeover

After reading the Fabric Maverick's advice about organization, I realized that I was a Type 2 person.  In other words, I know that something is in my office. I just do not know exactly where it is. It is time to change. I decided to take her advice and start small. Since my daughter has moved out, I seem to have some of her extra "stuff".  I found an old memo board to renovate.  This is the before picture.

As you can see it is a little worse for wear. I stripped it to the bare frame.  I measured the frame width and length and added 6 inches to those dimensions. I went to my stash and found some lovely fabric from the Freshcut collection by Heather Bailey. As you can see, I am working on reducing my stash. 

Tools and Supplies:

• Staple remover
• Staples
• Heavy duty staple gun
• Hot glue and hot gun (you may use Fabri-tac)
• Fabric cut to measure the dimensions of your board + 6 inches
• Low loft foam and batting
• Ribbon (I used 1" width)
• Small yo-yo maker
• Rectangle of stiff interfacing (this will cover the staples in the back of the frame)
• sawtooth hangers

Instructions:

 I stripped it to the bare frame.  I measured the frame width and length and added 6 inches to those dimensions.  I positioned a layer of cotton batting over the existing foam and stapled it the frame. Staple the fabric to the center top back of the frame with a 3-inch overhang. Repeat the preceding step by stapling to the bottom frame back with 3-inch fabric overhang.  Make sure the fabric is stretched tightly. Carefully staple all the fabric to the top and bottom frames working from the center of the frame. Repeat the same steps on the side frames. Create miter at the corner with remaining fabric. Fold to the back. Staple on the back, trimming any excess fabric. Cut ribbon pieces the length of the diagonal of the board plus enough to staple to the back of the frame. Begin by stretching the ribbon across the two diagonals.  Staple the ribbons to back. The ribbons will intersect in the middle. Staple the intersection. Beginning at the center of the top frame to the center side frame, staple ribbon. Repeat step for the opposite side.  Repeats steps from the bottom center frame to the sides.  Staple ribbon to the intersections. This will create a diamond pattern.  Instead of using covered buttons to cover the intersection staples, I created yo-yo's using the small yo-yo maker.  I used Fabric-Tac to attach to the intersections.  The last step is to cover the staples on the back. Glue the rectangle of stiff interfacing to the back to cover your staples. Attach the sawtooth hangers. You are finished!  Appropriate fabrics are any Home Decor fabric such as Nigella twill  or quilting fabric that are closely woven.

 It is hard to believe this is the same board.

   If you are not lucky enough to have "leftover" stuff from you adult children, I have the complete instructions for making a memo board from the HGTV website

 I am also working on a wall organizer which I will post when it is finished.

Go create something beautiful!