TOO many "galleries" goin' on

Happy happy HaPpY FRIDAY everyone :) Can you tell I'm happy for the weekend. We are having BEAUTIFUL weather here in SoCal (like upper 70's by the beach). Tonight we are going on a double family dinner date with some friends and then tomorrow morning Noah's baseball team will be marching in the Festival of Whales parade. FUN! It should be a great weekend :)

Moving on...
Confession: I, like many other diy'ers, have home decor ADD. It's extreme. Lately, I have been craving a clean, clutter free space in my house. A retreat, if you will. Well, semi-recently, I have also hung everything I own on my walls. No joke. Like, serious gallery overload. Take a look.....

You can see in the above pic the ledge shelves "gallery" on the left, the new large prints of the kids straight ahead, and the gallery between the kid's rooms in the hall. I also have one over my desk as well as in Hayden's room. Just TOO many. The thing that tipped me over the edge was when I hung up these new prints of the kids (more on those in another post)

These are from our Xmas card photo shoot and I love love love the way they turned out. Anyway, too many galleries in my world. MUST simplify (ish). Lol.

My husband is in the process of semi-overhauling the garage (adding outlets and drywall) and he found this GIANT cork board in our rafters (this house once belonged to my grandparents, and after them, my mom). Anyway, it was a free score for me :)

It's long and skinny, and perfect for the space between the kid's rooms. I didn't take pictures of the process (not so great at tutorials) but I can tell you how to make over a office style cork board very easily.

Step1: pick out your fabric and cut it so it can wrap around the frame onto the back of the board.
Step 2. Use spray glue and cover the entire board (frame and all).
Step 3: Let glue sit for 2 minutes (or whatever your particular brand specifies) so the glue can get tacky.
Step 4: Lay the fabric over the board and smooth out with a straight edge to get the air bubbles out. If you get an air pocket, simply lift that area up gently and smooth over it with your straight edge (I used a wide long ruler). Make sure you get a crisp line on the inner edge of the frame (just run your finger nail along the inner edge).
Step 5: Let that sit over night.
Step 6: flip the board over and wrap the fabric over the back edge like a package and glue it down. For mine, I sprayed along the back edge of the frame and pulled the fabric tight.
Step 6: Let that dry.

I wanted the "nail head trim" look to mine, so I purchased gold thumb tacks from the dollar tree. $1 for 300 tacks - can't beat that! I used a ruler and spaced them out one inch apart all the way around the board on the inside of the framed edge. Easy!

Ready to see her!?

Close-up of the "nail heads"

 

Closer-up.

 

Keepin' it real....here's one area where the fabric bunched and I couldn't smooth it out before the glue got too dry...

 

 

Not anything a carefully placed piece of kid art can't hide though...

 

 

 

This board will now be the home to all of the kid artsy crafty crap. I think having it contained on one board will help it not look so "junky" if you know what I mean. Prior to adding this board, this is what we had goin' on....

 

UGH.

 

Hopefully this beauty will help contain the clutter and help us achieve that "retreat" feel throughout our home. Ok, who am I kidding. It's just a cork board for cryin' out loud. Haha!

 

 

Happy weekend! I hope you have a great one :)