Custom Message Board Wall Decor

Joanne Diamond
by Joanne Diamond
3 Materials
$60
3 Hours
Easy
I have been drooling over those lettered message boards that are all over the blogs these days, however, I haven't been able to justify the expense. I just HAD to come up with a way to have a message board that was not only pretty but affordable. What I came up with IS less expensive and also stands alone as decor. With the traditional letter message boards, you would also have to have other decor around it to dress it up a bit. It doesn't 'stand alone'. That is how I looked at it anyway. :)
The first thing I did was buy this 18" x 24" black magnetic dry erase board with a black wood frame. I bought mine at Michaels using a 40% off coupon. I found it afterwards at Amazon for the regular price of what I paid with the 40% off coupon at Michaels! LOL


I also got a white chalk-style dry/wet erase marker at Michaels using a coupon.
I went to Home Depot and bought 3 of the 1x6x6 cedar fence boards and had them cut right there at Home Depot. At my local HD, you can get 2 free cuts and then its 50¢ per cut afterwards. The guy stacked the three boards and made two cuts of 33.5" each, giving me the 6 boards ready to go at the right lengths!


After I got home, I Kreg-Jigged them together (with the help of a second pair of hands) and then sanded them front and back using my new Wilwaukee rotary sander. Then, I stained the boards using Saman One Step Wood Stain & Varnish in my own custom blend. (the recipe is on my actual blog post, link at the bottom of this Hometalk post). I LOVE this brand of stain. It is like no other I have ever used before.
This is the refinished, resized, leftover floating shelf that had been discarded from a previous project. You can read about the floating shelf fail in one of my other Hometalk posts, or you can check out my blog post in the link at the bottom of this post.


To sum it up real quick, this was originally a very thin floating shelf that ended up getting replaced by a sturdy set and I decided to use this as a planter for this project!
Here is a close-up of the finished project!
I LOVE my new message board wall decor!!
A close up shot!
I LOVE my new message board wall decor!!
Suggested materials:
  • 3 of 1"x6"x6' cedar fence boards   (Home Depot)
  • Dry erase magnetic board   (Michaels or Amazon)
  • Stain   (www.saman.ca)
Joanne Diamond
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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2 of 4 comments
  • Lynn Lynn on Mar 09, 2019

    I love this! You did a fantastic job of recreating something inexpensively. An object that was definitely outside my price range as well. I can’t wait to do this! Thank you for sharing

  • Carol Brewer New Carol Brewer New on Mar 14, 2019

    Love, love, love this message board. I will be making it next week. Thank you for posting.

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