2 Farmers' Daughters: Simple Cork Board Redo

I decided I needed to add a little life to my workspace. I mean really...isn't it a little insane to stare at a plain wall all day everyday? OK. So, maybe I really stare at a computer screen all day, but trust me, the wall behind it is well....empty. I finally took down last year's puppy calendar, which wasn't exactly what I would call....um....well, it was puppies and six months over due to be taken down.....literally.

Here's what I did!

I had this old cork board.....safe to say it's seen better days. Our basement flooded TWICE within six months four years ago....four years! And this thing never managed to find it's way to the trash. Good thing for me! It came out of the floods only slightly worse for the ware. The water line and some minor warping were the only scars it came away with.

The cork board before.....looks kind of gross, doesn't it?!

First I ripped off the cheapo frame.

Cork board - frame removed.

And did you notice how I just start a project regardless if the workspace is clear? Who can resist when it comes to crafting? When it's time, it's time!

Then I cut the cork board down to fit the frame. This wasn't exactly the most fun or easy, but with an exacto knife and a kitchen shear, I got the job done. I didn't get any pics of that part (sorry).

This is the $3 frame I found at Savers!

New $3 frame from the thrift store. I love bargains!

I liked the detailing of it. And I thought the color was okay, but I wanted something I liked better and that would match the walls at the office a little more. I was trying to create a homey feel at the place I spend most of my time. So the next thing I did was spray painted it a dark brown color.

Frame spray painted brown.

Love that detailing!

I wanted to capitalize on the detailing of the frame, so I painted over the brown paint with some turqoiseish colors. I couldn't decide between the two colors and I was a bit short on the darker one so I used both. What the heck....why not?!

Who's ready to add some color?!

I didn't mix them together, I just put them next to each other and dipped the brush in and painted over the whole frame.

This frame is plastic, so that made the next part so much easier! All I did was take a paper towel and wiped it down right away after painting on the turquoisish colors. This was not a comprehensive wipe down...just real quick around the top to take off some of the turquoisish colors so some of the brown would show through to give it a distressed look. I did however make sure to be more thorough on wiping down the larger leaf shapes so they would have a consistent brown look all around the frame. Here's how it turned out:

Thrift store frame after adding, and removing paint.

Now back to the cork board!

I had a VERY hard time choosing the fabric! I found soooo many awesome choices. I had it narrowed down to these three:

I loved them all, but ultimately I chose #1.

I attached the fabric to the cork board using hot glue. Piece of cake! Quick and easy....if only every crafting project was like that. This was the finished product:

Almost finished product.

Ew, ew, ewwww!!!!

I did not like this.

Separately I loved the frame and I loved the fabric, but they DID NOT belong together. For my taste it was just way too busy and the patterns were way too different. So....back to the fabric store! This time I went for fabric #3!

I ripped fabric #1 off and grabbed my hot glue gun again and voila! Here it is!