cheap flexible wall surface for thumb tacks?
June 7, 2010 11:40 AM Subscribe
We live in a small, 100-yr-old house, thus after a couple of kids, my workspace (desk, PC, files, etc) got relegated to the basement. Help me figure out some sort of cheap, flexible surface to hang on my basement wall that I can put thumb tacks on (like you would with a corkboard).
As you can imagine, the basement of a 100-yr-old house isn't the prettiest of spaces. I'm tired of looking my dreary foundation wall, plus would look to have a corkboard to hang things with thumb tacks. I have about 4' x 6' of wall space I'd like to cover.
Problem is, about halfway down, the wall angles out a bit, so hanging your standard corkboard wouldn't work. Any ideas on some cheap flexible surface I could use.
I Googled "flexible corkboard" and discovered cork sheets on a sites like this one, but it looks industrial & potentially expensive.
Any cheap solutions?
As you can imagine, the basement of a 100-yr-old house isn't the prettiest of spaces. I'm tired of looking my dreary foundation wall, plus would look to have a corkboard to hang things with thumb tacks. I have about 4' x 6' of wall space I'd like to cover.
Problem is, about halfway down, the wall angles out a bit, so hanging your standard corkboard wouldn't work. Any ideas on some cheap flexible surface I could use.
I Googled "flexible corkboard" and discovered cork sheets on a sites like this one, but it looks industrial & potentially expensive.
Any cheap solutions?
When I was a kid, my bedroom wall was covered with cork tiles. Might that work?
posted by MrMoonPie at 11:45 AM on June 7, 2010
posted by MrMoonPie at 11:45 AM on June 7, 2010
you can paint corkboards or cover them with fabric and they are still functional, so keep that in mind as you're looking.
posted by brainmouse at 11:50 AM on June 7, 2010
posted by brainmouse at 11:50 AM on June 7, 2010
You can get cork on rolls at just about any hardware or craft store, and you'll be able to cut/shape/angle that however you need. A couple of those and some 3M mounting squares and you're all set - and like brainmouse said, you can paint cork or cover it with fabric if you don't like the cork look.
posted by Lyn Never at 11:55 AM on June 7, 2010
posted by Lyn Never at 11:55 AM on June 7, 2010
As a note, I like the tiles better than the roll, which is quite thin, but you could double-layer the roll cork OR maybe use an x-acto knife to cut bend-points in the tiles.
posted by Lyn Never at 11:56 AM on June 7, 2010
posted by Lyn Never at 11:56 AM on June 7, 2010
Pressboard or homasote is what we used in my house to do this - we basically converted a wall to floor to ceiling bulletin board, which is pretty much what homasote is.
You can either make the whole row of homasote angled (ie, tack the bottom to the bottom or the wall and the top to the top of the wall, so the new wall is pitched) or score the homasote where you angle begins and bend it to accommodate the angle.
posted by DarlingBri at 11:56 AM on June 7, 2010
You can either make the whole row of homasote angled (ie, tack the bottom to the bottom or the wall and the top to the top of the wall, so the new wall is pitched) or score the homasote where you angle begins and bend it to accommodate the angle.
posted by DarlingBri at 11:56 AM on June 7, 2010
20 years ago before the invention of the Palm pilot I glued cork board tiles to a very large piece of plywood once because I wanted a massive cork board covering half of my wall to tack up all the things I needed to remember on a daily basis. The cost was minimal and I spray painted it black to make it sleek! Don't know what happened to it but it probably ended up in the dumpster next to my beanbag chair and double breasted suits once I got married. As far as the angle is concerned you could get a couple of 1x3's and screw them into the back as a makeshift stand so you can lean the board against the wall to the height you desire or just create a small ceiling to floor frame as if you were building a drywall partition and make the whole thing cork board instead of drywall.
posted by any major dude at 12:07 PM on June 7, 2010
posted by any major dude at 12:07 PM on June 7, 2010
Hang it from the ceiling with picture wire. That way the bottom of the board will be against the wall. If it is sturdy enough that way then add a block between the top of the board and the wall.
posted by JayRwv at 12:59 PM on June 7, 2010
posted by JayRwv at 12:59 PM on June 7, 2010
Nthing homasote as a tackable surface. Those cork tiles were annoyingly thing, IMO.
Also consider painting the walls and the ceiling white (spray gun works well for the joists with the pipes and wires), so says she, who has her studio in the basement. Cleans and brightens things up considerably.
posted by sarajane at 1:09 PM on June 7, 2010
Also consider painting the walls and the ceiling white (spray gun works well for the joists with the pipes and wires), so says she, who has her studio in the basement. Cleans and brightens things up considerably.
posted by sarajane at 1:09 PM on June 7, 2010
Ikea sells packages of cork squares (about 9" square, 0.5" thick) that are intended for use as potholders. You could pick up a few packs and hang them up, cutting the ones that need to be for your space. I think they're around $1 per piece.
posted by msbutah at 4:24 PM on June 7, 2010
posted by msbutah at 4:24 PM on June 7, 2010
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perfect to hang a piece of plywood, shimmed out at the top to compensate for the small angle..trim the edge a bit, put a cork tile surface on it... (unless I'm misunderstanding what you mean by "angles out a bit")
posted by HuronBob at 11:44 AM on June 7, 2010