I have found in my continual “battle of the clutter” that we need a spot for so many “things” as they infiltrate into our home.

I know, duh, but I was getting so sick of calendars, wedding invitations, announcements, quotes we want to memorize, school notices, etc. sitting around.  You name it, it was cluttering up our kitchen and I was losing the clutter battle.

We always planned to do a barn door leading into our pantry but one day I had a little idea:

What if we did a gigantic bulletin board there instead?

I measured out how big I wanted it to be and the biggest one I could find anywhere was smaller than I wanted it.

And plus I kind of wanted more texture than just one plain board.  I figured if I used cork tiles it would bring in a little something more in our white kitchen.

So I researched cork flooring…figured I could get some big cool tiles and make something super unique.  But when it came right down to it, I decided the good old tiles you can get from Walmart would do the trick.  I wanted the color to be kind of varying and it is.

I found a tutorial online that told me step-by-step how to put that puppy together, now to find someone who could build a frame right into the wall for me…

I wanted to build it into the wall like I had done with my map frame in our old house (here).

I called my sister-in-law who had just re-done some trim in their house to ask if she had any ideas and low and behold, she told me they had us in the rotation for Christmas and how would we feel if the labor part of making that frame could be our Christmas gift (my brother-in-law is super handy around the house and would know exactly what to do.

Well, how about that wonderful idea??  It was genius (at least on our end 🙂

So I bought the supplies to do my part.  Foam core and tiles.

I taped the foam core together the exact size I wanted it to be.

Then I used that double sided foam tape generously on each tile to get them perfectly aligned.

It took a while…

…but I was ready when my brother-in-law came over to put together the frame.

He helped me mount my creation to the wall perfectly straight:

Then he got to work.

Is that not the nicest gift ever??

(oh and look at that cute boy who was still home back then…)

And then voila, there we had it, our own giant-sized bulletin board.

It went through the holidays unpainted because I couldn’t for the life of me pull myself together enough to do it, but I LOVED having it there.  I loved that we finally have a real spot for our advent calendar quilt:

And also I added my favorite Christmas quote up there:

(I just copied someone’s idea from Pinterest for that on a piece of poster board and loved having that reminder all month.)
It has since become a perfect spot for Max’s mission paraphernalia…see it with the flag back there behind Dave and my brothers…

 …who are obviously having a very intense and important conversation…

And it remained a Taiwan bulletin board through our “birthday season:”

And now it’s getting it’s groove with all the spring wedding invitations…yes and residual mission stuff.

Who knows what it will come in handy for in the future, but I kinda like that thing so far.

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25 Comments

  1. Great idea! I'm sitting here trying to figure out where I could build one in my house. It really would be a great solution for us too! Thanks for sharing. 🙂

  2. That's awesome! I love that it's not just for papers you need to keep around, but also for you to decorate for various seasons/events. Perfect!

    Incidentally, one thing that has helped me immensely with the paper clutter issue is my tickler file (thank you Power of Moms)- I love having a file for each month where I can put those wedding invitations and school flyers and whatnot that I know I'll need to reference but not keep forever. 🙂

  3. Brilliant! And you must know that your readers would love to see a home tour 😉 It's fun to see glimpses of your home on the blog, but I miss reading your Home blog!

  4. Thanks for sharing this, now I"m anxious to see more of your wall ideas that you've implemented in your new home. For ex/ can you post your gallery wall of your ancestor photos in the white frames? At your last home, you did a post of the walls in your home, and what you have hung. Loved that post, and would love to see an updated version of that post from your new home. Thanks again for sharing your happy family life with us all.

  5. That is such a great idea. I love the size. I just have four of the tiles used for our "work for hire" extra chores, quote of the week, art work, and school accomplishments. Someday I would love to have a huge one like that. Thanks for sharing.

  6. I also want to see finished rooms of your home! Love it and want to see the transition of where you took it from where it came from. I know you don't have time for it…but I just thought I'd keep asking in hopes you run out of motherhood and life things to blog about. I miss your "home" blog!!

  7. As much as I LOVE the arcitectural/design details of your home, what I love most is your attention to making it so very personable to you and your family. It looks like you've designed an atmosphere to remind you and your kids who you are and the things that matter most. I love that. ❤️

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