Pottery Barn Art Boards

In case any of you guys missed our guest post over at Infarrantly Creative

we thought we'd post it again here at home!

Here's our latest project we've been working on.

Do you recognize these???

Here's our source of inspiration~~

(image source Pottery Barn Kids)

These bad boys go for $169 a piece, yup each, so that would be a

grand total of $676 for 4.

Let me go grab my wallet......  

Yeah.

So here's where we started.

We printed off the picture and tried to measure them to scale.

If you don't own a quilting ruler, go get one, they are so useful!

We got 7 2x4 foot 1/4 inch MDF boards.

Home Depot was so good to cut everything out for us!

We used printer paper to make our patterns, which worked great

since it was already 11" high, we taped 3 sheets together to fit the 24" width

of the board and eyeballed the rest from there.

2 of the boards were cut into 3" slats,

1 was for the house tops

and the 4 remaining were for each house base. 

Each school house was 48" high except for the red one so we modified the pattern

to maximize the use of our boards.

I know looking at these it might seem overwhelming but remember...

YOU CAN DO IT!!!!

We know a lot of us get a bit nervous around tools,

but we Crafty Sisters really want to encourage you not to!

The jigsaw was one of the first tools we tried and it's pretty user friendly!

For this project you'll need:

A jigsaw, a drill, liquid nails or wood glue, paint,

sand paper and some clamps would be really useful!

(Although I have to admit my pantry was completely raided to clamp all of these down!)

We made the top portion 11 inches high.

Side slats were cut at 35 inches, the bottom was 24".

We used some 1x2" trim moulding for the chalk tray at the bottom.

It's easier to be exact with the roof line by layering the top piece,

 gluing it to the main house and then cutting it exactly. 

Less cuts, nicer finish.

Spray paint works best and gives the best finish!

Did you know that if you lightly sand between coats

it will make your finish look even better?!

Also following the directions on the back is always good (note to self).

Don't get too close and glob the paint.

It's better to do several thin coats then ruin it with one globby one.

Spray painting in cold weather isn't fun.

It stinks. Literally.

We're hoping the hubby doesn't notice the over spray of red on the garage floor.:)

Each house was then either inlaid with dry erase board,

cork board, or painted with chalk board paint. 

If using chalk board paint we recommend pre-painting the side slats and

then gluing them into place so you don't get chalkboard paint all over them.

Scared to cut dry erase board?  We were too!

Luckily we remembered a great tip we saw used on trimming doors to protect them from chipping:

Make sure to tape along the line before you score~

this will eliminate any chance for the finish to chip and flake up!

We also found a roll of white craft paper to hang from a dowel that

was held on by little corbels we made that attached to the base.

A little liquid nails holds everything in place

and spray adhesive worked great for the cork!

We attached "d" rings to the back for easy hanging.

All these things can be found at your local craft and hardware store.

We had to make one in pink for Nicole's daughter to display her

artwork and to organize her jewelery!

Candace's boys didn't need any coaxing to try them out either!

 These were pretty fun to make and actually pretty easy

but more importantly our kids love em'!

Plus our grand total was just over $75.

That's total....for 4!

Pretty fun huh?

Now, what to do next.....