Make a Clipboard Wall Display

 Hello Readers. Our modern world seems so digital and screen based but there are still papers all over my house. There are drawings, mail, junk mail, bills and random school papers. I wanted to give my kiddo a place to store, enjoy and show off his own drawings and papers. I made it using clipboards.

This is a kid friendly, adjustable storage and display area that doesn't need thumbtacks that will wind up stepped on on the floor. (*Ouch!)

I have been wanting to do something like this for a while. I had a few clipboards and planned to buy more clipboards eventually. I wanted a whole collection for this project. 

I found 6 more at a thrift store recently. They were 25 cents each (!!) so I bought them all. My youngest helped carry them at the store without even knowing what they were for. He said they were difficult to hold.

I wanted to create a layout before I started putting nails in the wall. I had 9 clipboards so I set them in this checkerboard pattern. One clipboard is really looking rough but its OK because I will hang something on it, the damage won't even show. You could do a totally different layout depending on the wall space you have and the number and color of clipboards you have.

I had a section of wall to hang up these clipboards for my display. I measured to make sure I put everything an equal distance from the others. I made a small mark with a pencil in the spots that I wanted put in the nails. 

I used one nail for each clipboard. The clipboards won't be holding anything but paper so they will not be heavy, a small nail will hold them up on the wall fine.

 

 There was a hole in the back of the metal clip that was perfect for hanging on a nail.

*Watch your fingers while using the hammer. 

Once the nails were in the wall, it was easy to hang each clipboard. 

 

When they were all on the wall it was very clean and organized looking. But it will soon be covered with papers and such.
 

We were able to hang up many pictures and special items. Each clipboard can hold many papers at once, the storage for our many drawings and pictures is going to be amazing. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

***Year End Update***- There are about 2637 papers on these clipboards now. This was a great idea for my house.

 

 

Make Shelves From Drawers

 Hello Readers. I am always trying to make more storage in the space that I live in. In addition to myself I live with my husband and my kids and we all have "stuff".  Where can we put the stuff? I am pretty much out of floor space so we have to go up and use some of the vertical space. I am talking about shelves today. You can of course buy bookcases and cabinets. But let's do something more creative and free! Let's make some shelves from old dresser drawers.

 Drawers to Shelves!

I found these drawers on the side of the road when I was driving home from the library. There were 5 dusty drawers that a man was putting at the end of his driveway. I stopped and asked if I could have them. He looked at me like I was crazy, but he said yes.

I came home and used a vacuum to get some of the dust off the drawers.

 

I sanded the drawers because I wanted to paint them. The paint will stick better if the finish is sanded.

 

I dusted the drawers to get rid of all the dust I had made when I sanded them. 

 

I removed some of the knobs with a screwdriver. I knew how I wanted to stack my drawers and the knobs would be in my way.

 

I used some white acrylic paint to paint the drawers I was going to use as my shelves.
 

I started painting my shelves. I let the first coat of paint dry over night and I added a second coat of paint the next day.  

 

I wanted my drawers stacked like this so each of the lower drawers needed 1 knob taken off. That way I could stack a drawer on top of the 2 lower drawers. We tested and shook the shelves to make sure they were very balanced and stable. (If you have kids that might climb on shelves, you should to anchor them to the wall. )

 

Kids are wild and they will climb on anything when they are young. When my youngest was a toddler, he would climb things that I never even thought he would try to climb. He is older now but when he was young we anchored all our furniture to the wall. Better safe than sorry. 

 

I used the new shelves to display some of my child's artwork. 

These can be swapped out whenever we want. Displaying them this way won't leave holes in the wall.

 

You can put the drawers into any order and arrangement that works for you and your space.

 

Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 

***Year End Update***- These shelves are still full of kid projects and artwork. They are very handy.

 

Cover a Bin With A Shirt

 Hello Readers.Why would you cover a bin with a shirt? Well, this shirt was super cute. The fabric had little clothes lines and hanging clothes all over it. It was a medical uniform shirt but that fabric seemed like it should be in a laundry room. So, that is where it went.

 Before and after.

 

Why would my medical professional be wearing this clothes line shirt? I didn't get it. But the fabric was so cute. It gave me an idea. 

I found this bin at Target. It was a great size and shape to hold my laundry supplies in my laundry room. 

 

I want something to hold all these detergents and supplies. They get knocked around and sometimes lost behind the dryer. It's annoying.

I tried the shirt on the bin and realized it was bigger than I needed. That was OK. It would work fine as long as I could fit the bin in the shirt.

I compared the shirt and the bin and realized the shirt was longer than I needed so I cut the shoulders and sleeves off to get them out of the way.

I want the fabric of the shirt to cover the whole bin. I don't want the white plastic to show. By placing the hem of the shirt along the bottom of the bin I will get a really nice clean look with no extra work.

I wanted the fabric to stay put on the bin. I used my hot glue gun to make that happen. I started by putting a spot of glue at the base of the bin. Then I pushed the fabric down on the hot glue. (Be careful-IT WAS HOT!!!)

I glued my way around the bottom edge of the bin. 

I mentioned before, this shirt was bigger than the bin. You can see the extra fabric here. I had glued my way around the bin and the extra fabric was at the back of the bin.

I glued the extra layers of fabric down to the bin too. 

I just added spots of glue until all the shirt was glued to the bin. This would be in the back so it won't show but it will still look nice. 

I held the fabric in place while it cooled. It made the fabric smooth and neat.

I glued the fold of the fabric to itself and worked my way up to the top edge of the bin. 

 

I held the folded fabric in place as it cooled so it would be smooth and neat.

 

I added spots of glue along the top of the bin. 

 

I pulled the fabric gently so it was smooth over the top of the bin. I worked my way around the top of the bin. 

 

The top of the shirt was tucked down into the bin.

 

I glued the edge of the shirt to the inside of the bin. I glued all the way around the inside of the bin as well. 

Everything was glued in place but I wanted to cover the cut edge inside the bin. I used this wide white ribbon to cover the fabrics edge. 

I glued the ribbon with spots of glue all the way around the inside of the bin.

When I got back the the beginning of the ribbon, I folded the edge under and glued that down to hide the raw cut edge of the ribbon. 

The ribbon covered the cut edge of the shirt and gives it a really neat look. 

 

I gave the dryer a quick wipe down.

 

 

I put all my laundry items in the bin.

 

Everything was tucked away nice and neat but still easy to reach and use.

 

Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 

 

***Year End Update***- This little bin is still in my laundry room and my boys can always find the laundry supplies without my help.