DIY Message Board

A friend of mine is fond of reminding me that I am significantly more organized than the average bear, and part of my personal organizational freakyness is that I’m a chronic note taker. I take notes in meetings, I took pages of notes when I had class, and I still carry a notebook around everywhere with me.

It should not be shocking to you to hear that I can see the purpose of turning household items into ready-made message boards. To be fair, however, it’s hard not to dig a craft that is both super useful and super simple. Remember the chalkboard walls? Well, making a DIY message board is about that easy. We’re talking like zero effort here people – and then the next time you need to tell your roommate that her boss called, tell your boyfriend that he’d best clean up his dirty laundry, and announce your super fly Friday night activities, you won’t need to waste time hunting for paper and a pen that still has its cap on. Here’s how it rolls, in order from easiest to hardest:

Glass: Houses are old in San Francisco and some of them have some windows stuck in some odd places. Work it to your advantage by turning it into a dry erase board. Here’s how: buy a dry erase marker. Yes, seriously. That’s it. Dry erase markers will wipe right off of glass, so you’re basically set. Apply stickers, or decals, or put some fabric along the back if you’d like. If you don’t have windows just laying around, then thrift score a picture frame with glass and you’re good to go.

Chalk: Because chalk board paint can be applied anywhere, it’s wicked simple to make a board by painting a variety of objects with chalk board paint and then hanging them somewhere convenient. Like, a serving tray or an old pie tin. Paint, let dry, hang. Done-zo.

Sheet Metal: Again, pretty straight forward. Get a frame, then buy and cut some sheet metal down to size and wrap fabric around it. Set within the frame, then hang the whole thing. Now you’ve got yourself a handy magnetic message board. All you need are some magnets to hang things. And, there’s always the super lazy version as well: use the reverse side of a baking sheet as your board, and just hang that. Magnets don’t know the difference.

Images courtesy Design Sponge, KittyMcLewin.blogspot.com, theHouseofSmiths.com, and Real Simple