Making Fabric-Covered Homasote Tack Board

And now, the moment I've been waiting for: My fabric-covered Homasote board is going up in the craft room! I think this gives you a good idea of what it will look like above the desk. This board will allow me to use tacks, push pins and hang up memos or photos in style! It just needs to air out a bit in the garage and get screwed to the wall, but here is where it is going:

And here is how we made it. Step One: Order the Homasote board from a reputable lumber place that will special order it in for you. You should be able to get a good sized piece for $40 or under. Ours cost $35 for a 4 x 8' sheet. They may do special size cuts for you, or it may be a standard size when it arrives and you may have to cut it down to fit your particular wall area. In our case, they helped cut it roughly to size. Both my husband and I are making boards for our separate rooms and he did do some cutting to finish them off, as he had the special saw blade he needed to do so. It is messy to cut, as well as thick. It's made out of compressed recycled paper type material. It cannot get wet or it will swell up. (Edited to add: I believe I am partially wrong on this. Thanks to Ellen's comment, and after googling around, I see alot of knitters actually use the Homasote as a blocking board! So the slight dampness during blocking is OK. Maybe it is only not supposed to get super doused. I surely would like to use our extra piece as a blocking board. That makes me even happier!)

My husband softened the edges a bit with another tool.

Step Two: We practiced laying out my fabric and decided how we wanted it centered. I found my fabric at IKEA and payed $8.99 for it. It is a very heavy cotton. Make sure yours is ironed and fairly wrinkle free. I did not have to iron mine. It was substantial enough and wrinkle free at purchase. You might want to avoid any fabrics that might snag easily with your push pins.

Step Three: Next, my husband sprayed a good layer of this adhesive on the bare board and gave it a minute or two to start getting tacky.

Step Four: Then we each stood at either end of the table and held the fabric very taut as we eased it down into place at the top of the board, holding it down tightly at the top two corners. Then making our way slowly, easing the fabric down gradually onto the board as we headed in the direction of the bottom of the board. Then we made sure it was flat, smoothed out and had no wrinkles.

Step Five: We carefully flipped the board upside down onto a clean large piece of cardboard on the garage floor to begin the stapling process. With a staple gun and pulling the fabric tauht as we went, staples were placed on all sides.

Corners of the fabric were folded in and made as flat as possible before stapling.

Now the board needs to air out a bit from the adhesive fumes so we will give it a rest.

Step Six: Then we will install on the wall using these (shown below) along with screws.

And when it's done, it will look like this (with the wall screws). And I can start tacking and pinning to my heart's content!

And voila! My room feels even more complete. You can really have fun with the fabric choices out there!

And the unexpected bonus is: I can use the leftover piece as a blocking board, apparently!

Adding the Accents to the Room

Edited to add: How about this interesting ficus plant which I hope does not want to become a tree?

Up goes "Billy" the shelf above the desk!

So I'm thinking about accents now. What do you think of this pillow? I like that it has some of the green that I am wanting to use to liven things up. It also has some of the salmony that is in the rug and the chocolate brown...It's a lumbar pillow from Pier One. I am also thinking of adding in some green things as accents like this...

Maybe some fake bamboo in the other vase also with rocks on the bottom...hmm..Fun to think about.

A Room Just for Me...

Here's what our living room has looked like for several weeks during our remodel of a lower bath, office and an upper bedroom. Lots and lots of boxes from Ikea. This is my husband hunched over one of the many items we got from Ikea. Everything comes in a flat box and has to be assembled. He has been assembling non-stop for a few weeks now. He can drill these in his sleep! We have logged 4 trips so far down there and back and been in the return line about that many times as well to exchange damaged items, overcharged items, etc. Our car knows the way there automatically now.

This is how the instructions look in the manual. No words, just little men and symbols. This man looks confused to me.

The cat is even more confused.

Here's a nice wide angle shot showing the room upstairs coming together and the new closet doors.

Another nice shot of my work space and the cubicles I will start filling up with my things. Now the fun begins!

First we must add some yarn to the cubbies! And the little cabinets and baskets too. Lots and lots of room for yarn! Yay, my dream has come true!

Next we add some books and photo album supplies.

And we add a nice dark brown leather chair in the corner just right for reading and armrests at the right height for...you guessed it...knitting!

Then a bookshelf (not pictured) will go in soon above the work surface. And below that...

I will have a pretty cool tackboard made out of homasote board that we will get cut at a lumber place, and cover tightly with this lovely fabric, also found at Ikea:

I must not leave out the lovely two-drawer filing cabinet which holds all my files well and in style.

It's enough to make this girl one happy camper....Time to settle in with a cup of coffee and sit back and enjoy the hard work we put in to making it a special room!

P.S. Because he's so nice, I will let my husband sit in my chair :)...

New Craft Room, New Yarn, New Project

We have a bit more space, since this summer our oldest got married, and our youngest daughter moved into sister's old room. So we are converting her old room into 1/2 craft room and extra storage for my "stuff". May also end up with the treadmill in it too. But oh well, at least it is a start. This is a shelving system in a "box" that we found at Target. Much assembly was required and it is actually two different units. One with the cubbies is secured to the lower unit. Thought that would be good for yarn storage with more room in the cabinet below. Then we'll figure out a desk of some sort and more shelving. It's a work in progress, but a place to put my things! My local yarn store is having a moving sale and so I used my discount to get some needed yarn to complete a top-down sweater I currently have on the needles... and some fun new hand dyed merino wool by Mirasol "Hacho" to begin a Baby Surprise Jacket, by Elizabeth Zimmerman.

Using this yummy Inca Gold yarn, a wool/silk blend, in "eggplant" color on my top-down sweater. It is a variation on a similar sweater I have done before, based on the pattern by Cosmicpluto Knits' for a top-down raglan. The yarn is nice to knit with and I have used it before with great results. Again, I love top-downs because NO SEAMS are required!

And here it is so far on size 7 circular needles, with buttonholes every few inches and sleeve stitches temporarily on "hold". Why this color? Because it is the "new" color of the season for fall and I don't have much of it in my wardrobe anymore. It sounded fun!