a girl who happens to love art, design and coffee
Billie Monster

A handsome new French memo board 07.21.2010

Posted 2 years ago in Repurpose, DIY, Home Decor, Tutorials

Those old cork bulletin boards are so 90s - it's true! What kid in the 90's didn't have one of those? While they may still be functional today, they certainly aren't stylish. But don't go and throw yours out just yet, you can upgrade it into a handsome new French memo board that's equally functional with just a few supplies.

For the base you can either use that ugly bulletin board, a stretched canvas, or something similar. Get yourself some snazzy fabric, some batting (or a fluffy purple towel like I did - no one will know!), staples, a hot glue gun, buttons, and some ribbon.

Measure whatever you're using as your base and add at least a couple inches for wrapping the fabric around the back. Cut the fabric and batting according to your measurements. The batting is just there to round out the edges and corners a bit, as well as give it a bit of a quilted look once you've added the buttons later on. Don't forget to iron the fabric if it's wrinkly. 

Lay the cut fabric, batting, and the base right side down onto your work surface, then start pulling the fabric around and stapling it in place. In one of my previous posts, A nifty framed jewelry display, I explained in more detail how to staple the fabric on. Basically, just pull the fabric taut and stick one staple on each side to secure it in place. Continue stapling about an inch or two apart all around then fold the corners neatly and staple them last. You might be able to get away with using a glue gun, dunno!

To me, the ribbon really makes the board, so decide how you want the ribbon to be placed, then measure and cut all the pieces. I found it easiest to start with the two biggest strips going from the top corners to the bottom corners - the ones that form a big 'X'. With those stapled in place on the back, it was easy to space out the other ribbons. 

You don't need to do this next step, but from past experience I recommend that you do! If you don't, all the little bits and pieces you tuck behind the ribbon will end up sliding around or falling out - and that's no good! So just grab some buttons and sew them onto the fabric where the ribbons cross. Then, I used a thick piece of string stapled onto the back horizontally, in the center of one side, so I could hang it on the wall.

The board I made in this project was for my mom since she loves black and blue. I also made a brown/green/yellow memo board a couple of months ago that I keep in my crafty-craft room above ugly dresser.

Here's some pretty neat French memo boards I found on the internets as well:

A word of caution, be prepared to find random notes mysteriously appearing on your board! Such as this one from Mr. Billie Monster!

This project was featured (yay!) on: One Pretty Thing, Adventures of One Crazy Lady

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Billie

freelance graphic + website designer
wirework + jewelry artist
art + craft lover
coffeeholic

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