Upcycling At Its Finest!

I took an old corkboard and 2 iron grates that my mom was going to throw away and made something I just love!

My mom originally had these iron grates just hung on her wall showing the paint color behind them.  I don't know if they are even iron, or if grate is the correct term, but that's ok.  The point is, she got married and combined households, so I got all kinds of cool things, these grates being one of them.

My initial plan was to turn one into a pinboard and the other into a ribbon-type card and photo display (but without the ribbon)--and then I found my ugly spray-painted corkboard along with my "good" stack of unused fabrics and inspiration struck!

Before Pictures: this is one of the two grates; it's leaning on the back cushion of the loveseat in the playroom that is hideously ugly, which I think increases the value of this "before" picture, lol.

1 of 2 iron grates

Horrible, isn't it? 

FYI: Metallic paint shows every s.i.n.g.l.e. imperfection--so it's not a good choice for anything unless you're going to spend time repairing and sanding, which I was not aware of and not willing to do for a $5 corkboard.  I had the same problem with Metallic Blue Turquoise on a picture frame.

My stack of fabrics I bought in August and had yet to use, in spite of designing a whole room color scheme around them!

I cut foamcore board so it would fit the inside of the grate.  I then trimmed and wrapped the fabric around the board.  So technically, they can still become pinboards.  So...this is a kind of an "in the middle of a project" type picture:

Here they are laying flat on the bed, with just a bit of my patterned fabric showing.

 

 

and the corkboard is now made...

And this is my final reveal--there are several because one picture kept throwing a glare:

After:

 I had to do a close-up of the pictures--my baby, back when he was a baby and then at his 1st birthday party.  He's 5 going on 15 now.....  I hot-glued flat thumbtacks to clothespins so my pictures wouldn't get holes in them.

So, there it is--and this is my first ever link-up to a party!  I have loved "Crafting With the Stars" over on Sew Dang Cute Crafts!  I loved all of the round 3 projects using fabric, too--they were a.m.a.z.i.n.g!