Make a note!

I've had this idea for a memo board/message center thing floating around in my brain for a long time. We finally got it done this week. It turned out exactly how I imagined it. Actually, Roger made a suggestion mid project that made it even better than I imagined.

It's really big. 20 inches wide by 45 inches tall.
We had most of the stuff on hand, it was just a matter of making the time to do it.
We started with a piece of bead board 20in X45 in.
We attached two pieces of 3/4 in X 3/4 in. hemlock along the long sides and then four 18 1/2 inch pieces of the same hemlock to divide the sections.
The inside measurement of the cork board section is 12 inches from top to bottom.
The inside measurement of the steel (for magnets) section is also 12 inches from top to bottom. In hindsight, we should have made that just a 1/8 inch bigger to accommodate the pre-cut 12X18 in. piece of sheet metal that we bought at Home Depot. Ours needed a little extra persuasion to fit into the opening, if you know what I mean.
The inside measurement of the calendar section is what is leftover which is approx. 18 inches from top to bottom.
We used an air nailer to attach the frame to the bead board. Wood glue would work too I'm sure but I don't have the patience to wait for glue to dry once I get going on something.
It was at this point that Roger suggested adding a piece of decorative trim that we had leftover from an old project. Adding this made a great place for pens and note paper to live. We added two 2inch pieces of hemlock to brace that decorative piece which we added after painting.
Hopefully the pictures will help explain that.

This was before we added the small 2 inch pieces.

We caulked all the seams with paintable caulk.

Then I got all the paint supplies out and had Roger start the painting while I cooked dinner. I told him I'd take over when dinner was done. Wouldn't you know it, dinner took so long to make that the painting was done by then! ;)

See the small blocks in that picture? Those will help brace the piece of decorative trim.

We painted the main piece first, and then added the decorative trim and painted it, so that the pockets would be painted on the inside too.

I used E6000 adhesive to glue the sheet metal on.

I used the same adhesive to glue the corks into their section. 

130 of them! It took a small eternity it seemed.

Most of the corks are from a private reserve. And there are a couple dozen others. Some from our summer vacation. :) Don't judge us harshly on our cheap fine taste in wines.

The calendar is hung with a clear plastic hook which I glued to the frame. We can easily change it out for standard 12X15 inch desktop calendars from the office supply store each year.

The magnets are made from the bottle caps from some brand of beer that Roger has been buying lately. Sessions? I think that's it. I thought the Rock, Paper, Scissors graphics were kind of cool.
All we had to buy was two 8 foot pieces of hemlock ($15.xx) and the 12 X 18 inch piece of sheet metal. ($4.xx), both from Home Depot. We had everything else. So our total OOP was about $20.
You can buy unused corks from homebrewing and winemaking supply stores at about $7.xx for 30 of them. We like The Beer Nut in Salt Lake. Or you could ask your wine drinking friends to save some for you. Maybe you know someone who works in a bar or restaurant? OR you could just use actual cork board.
To hang the board, we installed D-ring picture hangers like this onto the back of the memo board and then wall anchors and screws into the sheet rock to hang it on. Plus a strip of Command Strip velcro stuff at the bottom just keep little people from pulling it away from the wall.
If I had to do it again, I'd make the whole thing about a 1/4 inch narrower just so that the corks would fit more snugly into their space. I'd make that space about 1/2 inch shorter from top to bottom for the same reason. But, then again, corks come in varying sizes so it would be hard to say exactly how big to make it unless you could measure your specific corks. As it was, I just spaced them out a little to make up the difference.
There ya go! A pretty place to tame the paper chaos that usually resides at the end of my kitchen counter.
Linking up to a party. It's been a while.