A Problem, An Inspiration..... Wa-La!

I am self-employed and work from home.  When I made the decision back in 2004 to work from home, I had to figure out where to set up my office.  We live in a three bedroom ranch, so there was not much space for me upstairs.  I decided to put my office in our partially-finished basement.  Don't let "partially-finished" fool you though.  The space where I put my office was paneled with some cabinets and cupboards behind me, but for the most part, the basement was a cold, cinder-blocked, and tile-floored space. 

I spend six hours a day, Monday through Friday in this office.  I have been complaining for years about chronic winter sinus infections and how cold I always am.  Slippers, sweatshirts, pots of tea, and a space heater never helped.  After once again complaining about a sinus infection starting, my friend suggested that my basement was making me sick.  Really?  Maybe..... Holy crap, I bet she is right. 

I decided that I needed to find a space upstairs to move.   I decided the dining room would be the best spot.  I had a little corner in there big enough for a desk and it was "protected" enough away from the family room to work if my husband or the kids were home.  Here is the space....

After working in this space for a few weeks, I decided that I really missed my corkboard that I used to tack papers too that I need to keep at hand.  Problem is the one I have in my office was plain and ugly.  I really wanted to maintain my new office space as pretty.  I started surfing the web on how to make a fabric covered corkboard.  I came across a blog that had the perfect directions on how to do it.  So I must thank April at Funky Vintage Lovely for this tutorial and inspiration.  I did mine just slightly different, so I will walk through what I did...

Fist this is what I started with....

See, I told you, plain and ugly corkboard.  I wanted to spray paint the wood edges of the corkboard black to make it look more like a frame.  I did not tape anything off because I would just be covering the cork with fabric anyway.  I needed two coats of black satin spray paint.





Once the paint was dry, it was time to cut and add the fabric. I used Elmer's Spray Adhesive Craft Bond to attached the fabric to the cork.

Now once the fabric is tacked down to prevent fraying of the fabric and to give it a nice added touch, I bought some pretty curtain ribbon trim which I hot glued arounnd the entire perimeter.

Wa-La... the final product ready to hang...

And how it looks in my new space....

Oh yes, this is way better than working in the basement!