Make Your Own Magnet Board

"Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air"
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
I appreciate everyone's well wishes in my last post...I'm happy to say that I can finally *breathe* again! Thanks to my good old doctor and the meds he prescribed, my sinus infection is clearing up and my cough has just about fizzled out. I'm looking forward to finally getting back into some kind of routine this week!

I knew having that many magnets on my fridge would create about 400 pieces of additional artwork, memos, receipts, and photos - yikes!I wanted to follow up with some details on the last project I talked about - the DIY magnetic scrabble board project. It doesn't have to be a board for scrabble tiles at all, though. A few months back, I had bought a good supply of vintage Scrabble tile {400 total!} and I wanted to use them in a creative way. I thought they would make perfect magnets but I knew having that many magnets on my fridge would create about 400 pieces of additional artwork, memos, receipts, and photos - yikes! So I set about making a magnet board made especially for the Scrabble magnets. But you can use whatever magnets you like!

Basically, what you'll need for this project is a piece of sheet metal {I got mine from Lowes at around $7 for a 24"X36" piece}, a piece of thin plywood, trim, and Liquid Nail. Hubs used a nail gun to nail the trim into place but you could use a hammer and trim tails. {If you don't want to bother with adding trim, look for an old picture frame that will accommodate a metal insert. The metal can be snipped to size but will need a backing, however. }


Here is that pretty trim I mentioned in my last post. I had been envying this trim at the hardware store for a while, but at $18 for 8ft, it was out of my budget. How surprised I was to later find several pieces of the same trim in the corner of my garage! We bought it years ago when it was a little less expensive at $15. I had completely forgotten about it! Originally, we were going to use it to trim our windows.


Now, your hardward store may cut your plywood to size for you. {Lowes did for me, anyway.} You'll need the plywood to be the size of the sheet metal PLUS the width of your trim MINUS around a quarter of an inch to allow the trim to overlap the sheet metal just a bit. In retrospect, I would have had my plywood cut slightly smaller so that the plywood edges couldn't easily be seen from the side once complete. Also in retrospect, I would have just let hubs cut the plywood for me because the guy at Lowes didn't cut it quite right or straight and we still ended up trimming it a bit.

Here you see that I used a T-square to draw lines on the plywood showing exactly where the sheet metal would go in the center.


Then I generously applied liquid nail to the center of the plywood.


{Note: The photo below is of another magnet board project that required liquid nail on the entire board, not just the center...I just wanted you to see what I meant by "Liquid Nail" and what it looks like. More on that particular project another time...}


Next you'll want to carefully apply the sheet metal to the center of the board atop the Liquid Nail. Press gently from the center out. When it set up a bit, I was able to carefully walk all over the board to ensure good contact.


Now here is the part of this project where you're soon going to have to use your wonderful imagination. Why? Because I know, I know I took photos of the trim pieces I cut and laid neatly around the perimeter of the plywood. I know because I was so darn proud of myself for making those cuts by myself while hubs was at work! But for some reason, I cannot find those photos. Either I ran out of memory on my camera memory card and didn't realize it, or the kids deleted them when they were making their own Barbie action flick, or they were lost while being transferred to the computer...I don't know. *sigh*


But at this point, I measured the width and height of the my plywood and set the table saw to cut the pieces on a 45 degree angle.This creates nice mitered corners where the trim pieces come together.


And, now, imaginations on, everybody! Don't let what I found on my camera instead of my beautifully cut trim pieces distract you...


Again - *sigh*. Basically, you'll just take those trim pieces and lay them around the perimeter of your plywood {you can hold them in place with liquid nail if you like} and then nail the trim to the plywood. Fill in any gaps with wood filler, prime, and then paint!

I didn't want the bare metal showing, so I decided to decoupage my magnet board with pages from an older dictionary. I just brushed regular Elmer's glue onto the board in small sections, and applied the paper. The first layer of paper was to cover the entire board and all the edges, and the second layer of paper was more of a random pattern. When the glue was dry, I sprayed the paper with two or three layers of a satin clear coat. This is an important step to ensure durability of the paper.



About the Scrabble magnets themselves...I super glued small strong rare earth magnets {purchased from Ebay} to the backs. They stick extremely well even through the two layers of decoupage paper! They are disc magnets that are 1/4" wide X 1/16" thick. I actually bought 500 of them for about $25 - free shipping! The seller I purchased from also has much smaller quantities available.


So are you ready to see the finished result?
{Click to enlarge...There will be more photos when it's hung in it's final home - my studio.}


I didn't use all 400 tiles - I ran out of glue! But I don't think there would have been enough room for them anyway. I used almost 300.


I used "Oil Rubbed Bronze" spray paint for the trim. I love it's really dark brown finish. After I distressed the trim by sanding it, I clearcoated it in the same satin clearcoat I used on the paper. I did it all at the same time, actually!


The kids and I love playing Scrabble free form style! I love the sweet little words they come up with...





and the sweet little words I come up with as well:)



If you have any questions about this project, {especially the "use your imagination" part}, please let me know! Some folks have told me that my email link doesn't work...is anyone else having trouble with it? Just in case, my email is dear.twiceremembered@gmail.com.