How to Create a Real Life Pinterest Board

Love Pinterest so much that you'd really appreciate a way to expand its influence into your everyday life offline? By creating a "real life" Pinterest board, you can bring Pinterest style to life wherever you'd like inspiration to strike, using the fun, powerful or entertaining images that you've collected on Pinterest. All this takes is a suitable board, some hanging space and the pick of the best of your Pinterest collection.

Purpose and placement of the board

1. Consider what you want from your "real life" Pinterest board. It's likely that you have quite a few Pinterest boards online and to replicate them all is probably asking too much of your wall or living space. Select the one that you feel is the most inspiring or creative and that you'd really enjoy seeing "live" in your own home. When considering which board to choose, or which series of pinned pictures to display, keep in mind your current home decor/theme and any special interests you have, such as pets, crafts or cooking.
   
   
   • Develop specific idea categories such as food (recipes), fashion, organization, work life, kids, fitness, holiday and more. If you already have Pinterest boards, these might be all you need to inspire the category creation.
   • Consider how you’d like each category to flow into one another. For example, you could post the recipe board next to fitness so your low calorie recipes could be inspiring to the next workout you plan to try.
   • Obviously, you're not limited to Pinterest. Feel free to pin on photos from magazines, anywhere off the Internet, old books, newspapers, advertising materials, and any other resources. What you might find though, is that this is a reciprocal exercise, in that you discover things to add to Pinterest while making your offline real Pinterest board! That's fine––enjoy the journey.
2. Decide where the Pinterest board will hang or be displayed in your home. This will determine both the size of the board chosen and the room or space where you'll keep it. For example, if you're creating a Pinterest board featuring cupcakes, you might like this to be displayed in the kitchen where it inspires your baking. Or, you might have a series of animals in amusing poses and think that it'd make a great conversation piece in the lounge room when you're entertaining guests. If the board is of the organizational variety, you'll need to place it somewhere that the family can see it daily.
   
   
   • Assess the available wall space or leaning options open to you. This will help you to decide the optimal board size and the suitability of placement.
   • Plate or book holders can be used effectively to lean the board against, on a buffet, countertop, side table, etc. This might open up more options to use your space than only hanging it.
   • In some cases, you might think that creating a series of boards of smaller size would prove better than a single board of a large size. Think laterally!
   • There is no limit to the boards other than space––if you want one in the sewing room, one in the kitchen and one in the bedroom, go for it! The more you have, the more themes you can indulge in.
3. Purchase or recycle supplies. Old or new cork boards, pin boards, clipboards (make use of the clip), heavy cardboard backing, picture frames, etc. are all likely to make suitable real life boards. Whatever the board backing, just be sure it is strong and will be compatible with having items pinned or stuck to it and that it can be safely hung or displayed as needed.
   
   

Preparing the board

There are several options for making a board, from painting to papering, all dependent on the level of your enthusiasm, the available materials and how you want the end result to look and work. The following sections provide a few options to inspire you, from easiest to hardest (but longest lasting in the latter case).

1. Use a clipboard. This is the absolute simplest option. All you need to do is find a nice one and hang it from the clip end (or lean it against something) and start slipping images in under the clip. Or, slip a piece of paper the same size as the board under the clip and tape or tack images to the paper. If the clipboard is a bit shabby, use one of the following methods to improve its overall look (paint, fabric cover or paper cover). Many brightly colored clipboards can be bought from stationery stores or search through the stationery section of a favorite thrift store near student areas.
   
   
2. Paint the board. A painted board can match room decor or complement it, depending on the colors chosen. It's a fairly easy background, provided you select paints that are right for the type of board. In general, acrylic paints are probably a good bet but check with the retailer if you're in doubt. A painted board is probably best for sticking images to with poster tack or tape but if you have used a soft surface, such as cork, you could also pin the images to it.
   
   
   • Prepare the workspace. Cover with newspaper or other material to prevent stains. Arrange the paint and paintbrushes so that they're ready to use.
   • Paint each board. Either paint one color or paint the first layer, allow to dry, then paint stripes, dots, squiggly lines, a border, flowers, or whatever else takes your fancy. Let the paint dry between each layer. Borders can be a particularly effective addition that makes the end result look more professional.
   • Allow to dry completely before using.
   • If needed, attach hanging mounts after drying. Done!
3. Cover the board in paper. Paper boards are very easy to make and can use up that sweet piece of gift wrap you loved so much you just couldn't bring yourself to throw away! As with the painted board, the method for pinning items to it depends on the material used for the board but this method is probably best for pins or poster tack. Do note that if you plan on taping items to this board, that the tape may rip the paper backing if the images are removed. It depends how permanent you'd like the board to be (another alternative is to simply keep sticking images over the top but eventually this will look sloppy).
   
   
   • Find a suitable piece of paper. Measure to check that it will fit the entire board with at least an inch (2.5cm) overlap all around to allow to gluing to the back.
   • Bend the overlap edge around the board's four sides. At each corner, cut out a triangle piece to allow for easy turning over of the paper edges.
   • Use craft or hot glue to glue the edges to the back of the board. Before gluing, check that the paper sits evenly across the front of the board, with no creases, bubbles or ripples.
   • Allow the glue to dry.
   • Add embellishments, such as a ribbon or lace border, small fabric flowers in the corners, a bow in the top or bottom center, etc.
   • Add hanging mounts if required. Done!
4. Cover the board in fabric. This board requires a little more effort but it's by far the easiest to use and probably will last the longest. As well as a picture frame as the board, you'll need good quality untextured fabric to cover the board with, magnetic sheeting that has adhesive backing and scissors. And any sort of magnets will work to keep the chosen images in place, but it's a good idea to choose funky ones that match the fabric style.
   
   
   • Measure the fabric to fit the inside of the picture frame. Cut to size and lay down on a flat surface, wrong side facing out.
   • Measure the magnetic sheet to the same size as the picture frame. Cut to size.
   • Peel the backing off the magnetic sheet. Lay the sticky side over the wrong side of the fabric, taking care to meet the edges of the fabric precisely. If you don't have an adhesive-backed magnetic sheet, simply glue into place.
   • Turn it over and smooth out any bubbles using a ruler. Trim off any fabric overlap to neaten.
   • Remove the glass from the frame if it has any.
   • Insert the fabric covered magnetic board into the frame. Replace the frame's backing board. Done!

Using the board

1. Hang or display the board in the place you've chosen. Depending on the type of board you've made, use poster tack, pins, magnets or tape to place images onto the board.
   
   
2. Theme your Pinterest images. As touched on above, it's a good idea to have a theme for your Pinterest-inspired real life board. You may want to make a plan digitally first by searching Pinterest or using your own Pinterest board, followed by printing off the final choices. Some things to bear in mind when creating your real life Pinterest board include:
   
   
   • Consider how often you'll change/rotate the images. This may impact what is placed where and what theme you'll have––you could go with "theme of the month" if space is tight but you'd like to vary the board's contents often.
   • Consider printing quality––these are for display, so the best printing possible should be aimed for.
   • Consider grouping images based on colors. This is often done on Pinterest and it may be ideal for complementing your decor or inspiring a cooking or crafting project.
3. Finished.
   
   

• Instead of painting clipboards or pin boards, search for colored ones, often found at various craft and office supply stores. This will cut down on preparation time.
• Hang your boards in eye-line view so you don’t have to hop on a chair or ladder to make changes to your board. It also makes it easier to appreciate the boards!
• If you have young children (who might be interested in pull pictures off your boards) place boards out of reach from little hands.
• Use 3M removable hooks instead of nailing or using double sided mounting tape. The removable hooks won’t damage your walls and allow for quick changes.

• Some form of a board
• Paper/paint/fabric
• Magnetic backing (optional)
• Pins, poster tack, clips, tape, magnets, etc., for attaching images