IKEA Bulletin Board Makeover

January always brings with it a sense of wanting to start fresh and get organized. One look through the home improvement stores and craft stores, and you’ll quickly see that everything on sale is somehow related to streamlining your tasks and chores, and finding a place to put everything.

Consider the humble bulletin board. It isn’t anything fancy to look at, such as this basic one from Ikea. But it can really come in handy as a message center or a place to keep your important reminders.

I’m going to show you how to “pretty up” a plain Ikea bulletin board for just the cost of some acrylic craft paints and stencils of your choice. This is an easy project and also a quick one that can be completed in one afternoon. Let it dry overnight, hang it the next day.

Supplies:

Ikea “Vaggis” bulletin board
Painters tape
Craft paints in your choice of colors
Stencils – your choice of designs
Plastic jar lids (to hold your paints)
Paint brushes

Tutorial:

1. Mask off your bulletin board around the border, so that you can paint the wooden frame without getting paint onto the cork.

Important note: Don’t press too hard when putting the painters tape down, as some cork boards – like this one from Ikea – are very thin. I found out the hard way, and got two small holes in the cork when I lifted up the tape. But never fear: I’ll show you how I covered it up!

2. Paint the wood frame. I painted two quick coats of a pretty shade of blue.

3. Lift up the tape slowly and carefully, and be thankful you listened to my word of caution above so that you don’t have any cork ripped up like I did:

4. Using stencils and paint colors of your choice, simply begin painting a design onto the cork itself. I used a paisley stencil package that I already had in my stash, and just started at one corner and worked my way across the board.

I did one color completely, then moved on to the next one: all yellow paisleys first, then all purple ones, then the giant green one, followed by the small pink designs. I filled in some spots with some tiny blue squiggle stencils. For a final touch, I pounced some small orange dots here and there. Let dry.

5. If you have a problem with some small cork holes like I did, you can easily “fix” these holes by decorating right over them.

How? With buttons!

Yes, when in doubt, buttons are often my “go to” embellishment for projects. And these worked out perfectly. I chose a few from my stash in bright colors to match the stenciled design, and placed them not only over the two holes I needed to cover but in a few other random spots too.

Adhere them with heavy-duty glue dots, so they will stay in place.

And that’s it!

Now I have a pretty bulletin board for my craft studio to keep my notes where I can better pay attention to them!

I like the bright pastels I chose, as they’re happy colors to me! And I love how quick this makeover went, which is just what you want when trying to get yourself organized!