I don’t think it matters how long ago it is since you left school, the approach of September always feels much more like the beginning of a new year than the actual one in dreary old January! And it’s so much more full of hope and possibility, we could have an ‘Indian Summer’ to make up for the lack of a British one, the evenings are still light, and it just feels like an optimistic new start. So this has been a good time to get my little office up and running efficiently with pinboards, graphs and flow charts (pause to snort with derisive laughter!) and slowly, slowly get on top of the teetering piles of paperwork. It also means I can reclaim the studio space from being a dumping ground/spare room (thank goodness it was only Tim and I trying to shoehorn ourselves into the sofa bed!) It now looks too tidy to use, even Higgins is surprised…
…and here it is, I had to record it because it won’t last!
and in this one you can see the office at the end, it’s not ready for close inspection yet!
You might have noticed the old pinboard in the first photo, so full of stuff which had been there forever.
Very uninspiring, and in need of a makeover to celebrate the new look. It was even more uninspiring once I’d taken off all the tatty bits and pieces…
You can see just how long some things had languished there by the interesting shadow effects!
So this is how the transformation took place, a quick and easy project as it only took a couple of hours. All it took was some grey emulsion paint, I used a sample pot, and some white, I had plenty around as we’d been painting the studio. Fabric and Bondaweb the size of the board, ribbon and glue and a few buttons.
After giving the board a wipe I painted the frame with the grey emulsion…
Once it dried I gave it a coat of white. It doesn’t have to cover completely, just make sure that the brush strokes follow the shape of the frame. Once it was dry I sanded it lightly to reveal some of the grey undercoat and polished it with beeswax.
I then cut a piece of Bondaweb to the size of the cork area of the pinboard and ironed to the back of my chosen fabric, in this case some jolly red and pink spotty Ikea fabric, peeled off the back of the Bondaweb and ironed the fabric directly on to the cork area…
To cover the raw edges I used a woven ribbon…
..and found just the right buttons to trim the corners.
Did you notice the Dove Christmas decoration on the old pinboard? That got a new lease of life…
…and the pinboard was ready to use…
Trouble is, it’s far too pretty to fill with Post-It notes, receipts and appointments, isn’t it? So for now it looks like this…
…and I’ll probably have to buy another pinboard to use in the office! Ho hum…