after what seems like
an eternity
the dressing room is done!
depending on how photos turn out
(i BROKE my tripod)
i might include a dressing room reveal!
just kidding
i was gonna show off the dressing room
anyway

—

if you know me
you know that i don’t usually do
accessories.
i almost didn’t wear earrings
for my wedding
i take off my wedding & engagement rings at night
(i’m not the only one who
when she sleeps sometimes ends up
with a ring crease on her face
or forehead from cradling her
head in her hand, right?)
but
having said that
i do have trinkets,
lovely ones,
tucked away in drawers
boxes
out of sight
and never worn.
with the creation of our
new space
i wanted to use up some wall
real estate,
showcase some pretty.

enter the linen board.
it’s not a revolutionary item
and the diy route,
while economical,
can be time consuming,
especially if you don’t have all
the materials & tools readily available.
our method worked for us
but i have read
various other ways
of creating it.
do what’s comfortable for you,
for your skill level,
and for your convenience.

—

diy linen board
as inspired by elephantine & this.

materials:

• canvas – i went through a phase a few years ago where i painted. i know. i had a few blank canvases lying around that i use to bounce light. purchased at michael’s, value pack probably. free, obviously i paid for it but that was years ago.
• 1 yard of linen, though you will not use the entire yard. $5.99, purchased from joann’s fabric (for the additional 2 boards we made, i did buy 2 more yards of linen, less than $10.00)
• styrofoam – leftover from boxes of ikea stuff, was in the recycling bin, reused, so we’ll say it’s free. alternatively, you can use cork board or poly panel insulation boards ($7.25 for 6pk), that’s sold at home depot or lowes
• staple gun – investment item, which will be used for other crafty stuff. will list price, but not in total. $20.99 BUT 40% coupon so $12.59
• copper nail tacks – optional, for decorative purposes only, $1.99/box
• fiberboard – optional, when we did up the dressing room, we broke down my very old, hand-me-down dresser and kept what could be re-used. this piece was one of it. free. it can also be called particle board, home depot & lowes sells them for super cheap and they’ll cut it to size for you.
• saw tooth frame hanger – it was in dw’s tool box for whatever reason, so free, but it costs like $4.29/pack at the hardware store.
• wood glue – i don’t know why we have this but we do, thankfully. free.

total for the first linen board: $7.98. take that pottery barn & restoration hardware.

note: dw made two more for me (the man spoils me. i also have a niggling feeling that he liked playing with the staple gun), and again the cost was so minimal compared to what the finished product retails for at designer home stores. keep an eye out for things that you can reuse, recycle, and use COUPONS.

directions:

so the back of the canvas has that space, fill it with either the styrofoam, insulation foam or cork board. measure it out accordingly. the sytrofoams i used were in pieces so i had to glue them to each other and dabbed a bit on the corners so they adhered to the canvas. (the last two boards were made with the poly panel insulation boards. we used one sheet for both boards, and there’s still some left over. super easy to cut, i used an old bread knife. this method did not require the glue, we measured it so it would fit snug int the space)

if you want, iron out linen piece. measure it to size, you want there to be enough for it to fold over the canvas and be stapled comfortably. lay out the linen piece, place the canvas face down on it and pull the sides up & over it.
carefully staple one side, keeping the staples evenly spaced. when you reach the corners, fold them like how you would wrap a box. when you reach the opposite side of the canvas of the already stapled side, be sure to pull the linen taut. it helps to have someone pull and the other staple.
at this point, the board is done, it can be hung as is, but dw decided to add the backing and picture hanger.

cut the fake wood to size and lay down on the stapled side. staple it down onto the canvas.
if using, add the hook to the middle of the canvas.

hang and pin to your heart’s content.

BAM!