Stylish and functional, magnetic art board!

Friday, October 15, 2010

Stylish and functional, magnetic art board!

I got this great idea from a blog called "A little of this, a little of that". It made me think....My daughter loves to have her artwork on display. I just don't want it all over my frig! I want to see it. I just don't want to have it be the only thing you see! So, I came up with, what I think, is a great solution!

I decided that I had a nice, blank space on the side of the drawers in our kitchen. Yes, we need these drawers....they sit in an awkward place, but that's just too bad because it's the best place to put them and they are well used in a kitchen with only a couple of drawers - apparently, when they updated this kitchen in the 70s they didn't think drawers were important! So, here's what I did...

First, I gathered all the supplies I needed to do this job:

1. Wipes - to wipe down sheet metal

2. Level - to help draw lines (you could use a yardstick)

3. Gloves - sheet metal is sharp!

4. Tape measure - to measure out all the right stuff

5. Sharpie - to mark up the measurements

6. Spray adhesive - to hold down fabric

7. Painter's tape - to hold down fabric on back

8. Power cutter - to cut sheet metal

9. Fabric - to wrap sheet metal

10. Command hooks - to hold up magnetic board

I took a piece of sheet metal and wiped it down with the wipes. Yep, sheet metal! The guys at Lowe's were questioning why I was buying a piece of sheet metal. Now it's about $17 for this large piece, but I plan on using it elsewhere for another project, and I only used about 1/3 of it here - so technically it only cost about $6 (with tax).

I got to pull out my hubby's awesome tool to cut the sheet metal! It's an electric sheet metal cutter - yep! Power tools...yes, you can cut the sheet metal by hand or probably even ask the store to do it. When you use a power cutter, it makes these cool curly cues! (Be sure to wear gloves the whole time you're handling the sheet metal because it will seriously cut you, it's very sharp!)

Then, once I had it all cut, I measured out the middle from top to bottom. I marked it with my Sharpie (using the level for a straight edge) so that when I put my fabric on, it would line up nicely so I didn't have the pattern going sideways - I know, I know...I SO not into having it perfect, but I wanted it to look nice!

Then, I took the spray adhesive (pick up at a craft store) and sprayed the sheet metal. Be sure to put an old sheet under where you spray the adhesive because it will make a mess of any surrounding area!

I folded the fabric in half and put a tiny mark on the fabric as to where the middle was and then lined that up with the line I put on the sheet metal. I carefully laid it down on the sheet metal and began pushing out so it laid flat. You can lift it up if you get a bubble and put a little spray on there and lay it back down. Then, I used my painter's tape on the back to hold it down - and to cover the sticky adhesive on the back edge.

I have been really into fabrics lately - big, bold fabrics. I bought a yard of fabric from Little Cherubs website. I LOVE their variety of fabrics and they were truly the color I expected them to be when they came. I got one yard each of two fabrics. One I'll be using for this project and the other for something else I have in mind in another room later!

I took my lovely covered sheet metal inside and held it up to the drawers that I planned to hang it from. It worked! I didn't want to screw or glue this metal, magnetic board to the drawers, so I bought these great new Command hooks made for hanging pictures - this one was made for a 16 x 20 sized photo frame (I couldn't find the weight capacity on the package anywhere).