One of my favorite things to collect are cork bulletin boards.
But I love revamping them into cheater chalkboards with cheater chalk art because my penmanship is not the greatest.
So what I do is generally collect bulletin boards from the thrift stores, however sometimes their cork surfaces can be a little scratched…
For that reason, the last time I was in a big box office supply store, I treated myself to a brand spankin’ new one! Just in case.
And am I ever glad I did! Because when brainstorms hit, you need to run with it!
Here’s my latest cheater chalkboard (with a dash of awesome pattern) with cheater chalk art done through stencils!
You’ll need:
(this post contains some affiliate links)
cork bulletin board – mine was 24″ x 36″ with a wood frame
Fusion Mineral Paint’s Ash, Coal Black, Casement
(find a local Fusion merchant HERE)
wooden yardstick with wood spacers
a couple of cute clipboards
(my clipboards were from Staples in Canada)
Visit my super cool office-themed collection in my curated Amazon store HERE
I use a lot of clipboards for check lists and grouping certain tasks together so they are quick grabs and gos.
For this reason, I desired to have a pretty place to hang them.
My vision had been to have a cork board that looked like a chalkboard with the most used clipboards hanging off it.
While I love a good chalkboard, I have not been blessed with good penmanship, so I cheat. To get the look, I use stencils to create my ‘chalked’ images, and I had just the right one in mind…
We can do anything, just not everything, right?!
Something like that…
So I grabbed the Office – small stencil for a start.
How to:
1. Coat out a cork board with desired paint.
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Next up, I coated the bulletin board with Fusion Mineral Paint’s Ash.
It’s like a soft black, or dark grey, take your pick.
I used Fusion’s new microfibre roller (from part of their paint kit) to avoid brush strokes, and boy did that thing sing! The finish was truly perfect! I’ll be using this again on super smooth surfaces.
2. In paper plates, mix up a secondary paint tone that is either slightly higher or darker than your base.
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After painting the bulletin board, I decided to make it a little more unique by adding a stenciled pattern. But I didn’t want it busy… just subtle.
So I mixed Fusion’s Ash and Coal Black at about a 50/50 ratio for my secondary colour.
Tip: I like using paper plates for mixing a custom colour. They offer lots of swirling room.
3. Position the Houndstooth stencil in the centre of the board, stencil images, then fill rest of board until covered.
Learn how to stencil with exceptional results HERE
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I then grabbed the Houndstooth – Large stencil. Dipping the stencil brush in the new slightly darker tone, it created an amazing tone-on-tone effect! Exactly what I had hoped for.
Tip: If you’re trying a new effect, paint a tester surface with your background colour, then play on that with your chosen tones before implementing on your project. Worked like a charm and saved my project from a bunch of mistakes!
4. Allow jaw to drop in happiness!
Oh my goodness… isn’t that just so pretty?!
5. Decide how you’ll be arranging your bulletin board before the next step.
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And just like decorating a room that isn’t yet done, I had to quickly plunk on the clipboards to see what they looked like….
Class-act bulletin board I say! Is it wrong to want everything on earth with this gorgeous effect now?!
6. Stencil OFFICE along one side of the bulletin board in white to create a chalk effect.
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However the now-Houndstooth bulletin board needed one more thing to complete it…
The Office – Small stencil was positioned into place, then stenciled in Fusion’s Casement to create my desired chalkboard effect.
It turned out really cool!
But there’s one more thing I wanted to make…
7. Create an office supply hanger by attaching wood pieces as spacers behind a yardstick. Then attach to wall.
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I desired a place to hang things for the little office wall, so I grabbed a yardstick and some small chunks of wood to act as spacers.
Pre-drilling holes into each…
The holes got screws, then the spacers were spaced, then it was attached to the wall.
Below shows the finished results!
How adorable is this?
An place for everything, and everything in its place. Rustic woodsy Office style!
For larger wall spaces, a super large board would look AMAZING with a TON of clipboards! Now I want that too!
The Houndstooth pattern is indeed subtle… so if your room is dimly lit, you may want to punch up the contrast a little more than I did.
And doesn’t OFFICE look all chalk-like?
I LOVE how it fits perfectly on a standard sized bulletin board.
I also found if you positioned the bulletin board horizontally, you could squeak in 3 clipboards. That looked super nice too!
Do you remember that cute banner I made from dollar store supplies shown HERE?
It fits right in.
The office-themed little yard stick with spacers teamed up with s-hooks is perfect for hanging office supplies.
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Faux Ikea plants are from HERE
Pencil cups are no longer available.
Learn how to make the branch handled toolbox office organizer HERE
What a fun place to play!
And now to put it to work…
Have I inspired you to create your own pretty bulletin board? What colours would you choose?
Visit a few other equally fun Office cork board makeovers HERE!
Wow! I Love this! How awesome, you are such an inspiration to all.
Thank Sandy! Glad something inspired you in this post! Now I want to paint ‘all the bbs different tones…’ 😀
Clever idea. That’s also good for an apartment or somewhere that shouldn’t have nails in the wall.
Great point Eileen!
I generally attach everything however there was a switch in the way on this wall so leaning worked out great!
Hi Donna. Just wanted to let you know I am enjoying your posts. I have not been able to type real well as surgery was performed on my left thumb joint and I am in a sling. I am typing with my pointer finger. Just love it all.
Aww Joanne, I hope you heal up soon! I appreciate your visits and kudos and goodness…. effort to comment! Does your phone have a voice typer? I use mine for that all the time! haha
And I can relate. I watched 11 seasons ( oh yes I did) of Heartland on Netflix while recovering from my foot surgery last year. It actually was quite delightful! 🙂
All the best, girl!
Mmmmmmm subtle is always good right!!!! It’s like seeing a gentleman dressed in a suit that’s “understated class”. It always makes a lasting impression 😉 Love how this turned out Donna and yes, super inspired as always. Loved what you did with the yardsticks too. So perfect for a craft room/office
i love this idea. You are full of great ideas. Lovin it!