pegboard, domesticated

In the background of this picture you will see one of the greatest ideas I have ever had:

It's a pegboard.  But it's a pretty pegboard.  One worthy of many-colored spools of thread.  One that I'd be proud to have in the background of photos of my "sewing room". 

So I'll tell you about it, since of course now that you've seen my wonderful pegboard you want one too.

Here's the problem with pegboard in its wild state:

It's...just...it looks like it would be so lovely above the workbench in the garage, but elsewhere, not so much. But, being fiberboard, it takes paint beautifully, and so the first step is to grab a hunk of pegboard and paint it in a color that matches, or coordinates with, or accents, or whatevers, your room. 

Then, you'll want to rip all the chair rail moulding off of your living room walls...or, I guess, you could go down to Home Depot and get yourself some new moulding.  If you're into that type of thing.  And if you think chair rail moulding in a living room makes any sense and you want to leave yours intact. 

Now just choose the parts of the moulding least damaged by your removal technique, and cut the ends at a 45 degree angle with your miter saw.  Make sure you cut two sets that are the same length each.  Course, I guess, if you wanted like a hexagonal pegboard that's your business, but do send me a picture, okay?

Here's what we're going for right here:

And as you can see, my pegboard could benefit from a few paint touchups.  Even scuffed up, though, the white is a lot better than the melon color it was when I pulled it off the walls. 

The way you make a picture frame is pretty straightforward.  Cut two matching sets of molding at 45 degree angles, slather glue on the cut ends like your life depends on it, and clamp them all together.  I used a "band clamp" which looks so exactly like the ratchet-y tie-downs that Father Bird uses to strap stuff to the back of the truck that I wonder if they aren't interchangeable.  It's just a strap that goes all the way around, and cinches down tight to hold your frame together until the glue dries.

After that it's a matter of cutting the pegboard to be just smaller than the outside of the frame:

But not smaller than the inside of the frame.  Glue around the edges of the pegboard, place the whole shebang face down, and pile canned items in the middle of the pegboard's back to hold it down while the glue dries.  A stack of books will also do nicely. 

When you hang this sucker, make sure there's space between the holes and the wall, so that the hooks (which you buy in an assorted pack for a ridiculously low price at a hardware store) will have a place to sit.  To this end, I screw a little strip of wood to two wall studs, then screw through two of the pegboard holes into the strip.  And then stand around figuring out which hooks I want where.  And whether to organize my thread by color or amount left on the spool, or type, or brand....

~MB~

Comments

[Cindy]

Looks so great! I am having a problem trying to figure out how to organize my sewing area. My machine sits on a table (deliberately) placed in front of a window. So no storage on the wall there. It would make sense to have wall stuff behind my cutting table, but it is just deeper than my arms are long. So I can't reach the wall without it being a reaaaaallllll stretch. So puzzled by this quandry.....