Are you wondering how this picture and the title of the blog are related? Well, then it has duly served its purpose of inspiring you into even just considering that pin-boards don't have to look like the ugliest office supplies ever.
I'm going to walk you through my DIY experience of revamping an old pin-board that I had lying around and what led me to it.
We opened our first studio space sometime last year and since then we'd been slowly but surely looking at a variety of pin-boards that we could get for the new space, to pin up our favourite quotes, project images, things to remember, and the like. Months and months of online searching and we got fed up of the whole thing. Everyone had the same old, sad pin-board designs.
What is the first picture that comes to your mind when you hear of a pin-board? I bet it's something like the picture on the right. It's okay if your entire office is based around the colour blue, but even that can get really gloomy.
The board that I've had at home for almost the last 10+ years looked exactly like this. 10 years later, and the designs haven't much changed, apart from sturdier metal frames, perhaps. I think pin-boards deserve better than this.
It's surprisingly easy to make from scratch, just the materials hard to acquire. Crunched on time, we were never able to get to that.
Finally, a year after opening our office, I decided to make do with my ugly, old pin-board, and I'm glad I did, in all honesty, because I got to experiment with art outside of the canvas space and redefine the concept of pin-boards.
I ordered a small roll of fabric that would fit the board, and stapled it to the front side. I would highly recommend unscrewing the frame to wrap the fabric all around the board instead 0f stapling it. My poor board had started to rust, so that option was out for me. If you don't unscrew the frame, you'll have to cut the fabric very carefully and neatly and tuck the messy edges inside the frame with a scissor end, or something sharp.
The fabric seemed okay in the pictures when I placed the order on Amazon, but when I got it, it wasn't how I expected it. It was slightly translucent so the dark colour of the pin-board made it look a bit dull. I wouldn't have it. I painted the fabric completely white, with acrylic colours. Then, I took up the case of the frame, and painted it a beautiful, metallic golden, with enamel colours.
With the newly painted board just standing on my easel stand like a naked canvas, I had the sudden impulse to paint it. With a little bit of typography, and some branding, voilà, I got myself a piece of art in the form of a pin-worthy board that will hold all of my favourite quotes & pictures.
Check out the process on our Instagram, to see how I transformed a blank pin-board into a branded piece of art.
Are you feeling inspired yet to recreate your own pin-board? I would love to see some of your quirky, personal, interesting recreations. Hit them up in the comments!
Until next time,
xx Ishita