This one is $149 + $21 shipping, hubby can make this easily with great fabric for under $50!
And since I couldn’t handle being inside any longer, we went out this morning, and trekked to our local fabric stores in search of fabric, because I’ve decided that now is the time to put a bulletin board in the sunroom behind my computers, something I’ve wanted to do for-ever.
I found the above one from Pottery Barn that I like really well, but I don’t like the price – $149 + shipping. It’s so simple, hubby can make this for me, no problem. It’s big 48x36, which is what I want, a great big one so I can put all my treasures on it. I even have a clock to go inside it, and it’s much neater than the one in the picture ;o)
But what do I need for the bulletin board base, cork maybe? Well, thanks to online shopping, I found this Designer Tack Bulletin Board in stock at our local Menards for $12.99. How cheap is that? It’s 48 x 32, just a bit shorter than the Pottery Barn 48 x 36, but it will work fine.
It’s great, push pins will dig into it nicely, it has no frame, which is what we want, since LC will build me a frame for it out of 1.5” boards, then we will attach the fabric by stapling it to the back of the frame, and I will end up with something looking similar to the Pottery Barn one, which is like a painting stretched on canvas, with no wood showing on the edges.
Depending on the fabric, I may need to line it with drapery fabric liner to add body, but I don’t want it puffy, so that’s yet to be determined.
And now for the fabric. There is tons of linen at the fabric stores, the prices are cheap, but, let’s kick this up a notch. Here are the choices that I’ve narrowed it down to.
This fabric is called Document, and it comes in beige with chocolate letters, like the above picture, or…
It also comes in this taupe and charcoal combination.
And then there is this fabric, Love Nest Cedar, which is awesome because it not only has script, but it has birds on branches, and this bulletin board will be right by my window, where the finches feed.
So, even though I like the second fabric, and love the birds, I have to decide if I need to buy the first fabric, because the background color is similar to my walls in my living room, or the second color, which seems to match the sunroom better. I love the birds but they are too fussy. Oh decisions, decisions…
Okay, let’s talk money. So far I have $13 plus tax invested in my tack bulletin board from Menard. A yard of this fabric is $17, (it’s 55” wide, so no seams) and I can buy it at The Fabric House in Nashville. Then LC has to buy boards to build the frame, that will cost approximately $10. The only additional expense will be if I need to buy fabric to line this, and that’s cheap, $5.00.
So, my total cost to make this will be under $50, I’ll save at least $120 by not buying the one from Pottery Barn, and I think the french script will be a better look for my room than the plain linen.
However, you could do it with the plain linen or burlap and knock off even more money, because linen/burlap is around $5.99 a yard.
Now my very favorite bulletin board is this one, I just love this, it’s also from Pottery Barn but no longer available. It’s too rustic for my sunroom, but some of you might like to try and duplicate it. It’s just so cool! The rusty bars are just drapery dowel rods that they’ve spray painted with Old World Gold/Bronze Paint.
So that’s whats going on in my little corner of the world. It will take a few days to accomplish this, I’ll post pictures afterwards, and we’ll see how this all shakes out.
Weather is cooling off today, it’s only 105 degrees.
~ Jan
It was such a pretty morning, I was out and about, enjoying the day, tomorrow they’re predicting 106 degrees, same on Friday, as well. Our neighbor has a sunflower peeking over his fence, there is nothing more cheerful on a summer morning than a sunflower in full bloom.
It’s so dry in Heavensville, we spend our days watering trees and flowers. We haven’t had rain since March, except for two days last month and the conditions are severe. 
I love the birds, and was listening to the mockingbird sing his song while I drank my morning coffee.
The fields are filled with butterflies, I thought of sweet Abby and wished she was with me.
P-Pa bought her another dollhouse, a great big one this time, and he bought her a Little Tykes Kitchen. She was excited with both of them, but it was the binoculars he got her that captivated her the most. She constantly walked around looking thru them, often bent over, telling us she was searching for “clues.” She has Rapunzel Crocs, pink ones, that she picked out herself, and she thinks they’re wonderful. She also loves necklaces, so she was all decked out in the things she loved.
We took countless rides on Milly, and we went “really, really fast” and we squealed and laughed and sang as we rode along. If I do nothing else with this grandchild, I want to instill a love of nature in her. I’m doing a good job so far, we went to the woods, and she smelled the flowers, and touched the leaves. We watched for birds, and listened to their songs, it was such a good time.
The Queen Anne’s Lace was her very, very favorite and she told everybody she saw that they were her very, very favorite flower. Mother would have smiled if she knew that, Queen Anne’s Lace were her favorite, too. She would pick them, bring them in the house and put them in a Ball Fruit Jar that was filled with water and food coloring. Then we would have blue, yellow, red, all different colors of flowers. I need to do that for Abby, it would be fun to relive that memory again.
She continues to love the iPad, it’s her other very, very, favorite thing. She’s such a big girl, she sits now and plays on it by herself, and if I try to help, she says, “No thank you Grammie, I’ll do it by myself.”
She enjoyed tromping through the grass with her Auntie Trisher. They found butterflies and dragonflies, and she was so excited, pointing them out to me. She also wanted to see Mr. Bunny Rabbit, but he didn’t cooperate and come out to visit. Later in the day she did get to see a rabbit, he was eating by the side of the road and wasn’t phased at all by the little girl on the golf cart giggling at him.
