How to Paint a Cork Board.

This post is all about working with what you have.  Once upon a time I paid waaay too much for an ugly warped cork board.  It was all twisted and ugly but I bought it anyway and I think I paid twenty-five dollars for it!  Yikes. 

Here she is in all her glory.

When I was re-doing my office I wanted to have a cork board above the desk but I really didn't want to buy a new one.  So how could I work with the old one?  I decided I wanted to paint it so I googled around for the best way to accomplish that.  Here's the answer:

I covered the cork board with three coats of water based polyurethane.  This prevented the paint from soaking through the cork and ensured I would get nice even coverage.

You can see how shiny it is after I was done.  I let each coat dry for about an hour between applications.  Once I was sure everything was water tight I applied the color.  I used the same color that I painted the back of the bookshelves (Rich Navy by BHG) for a bit of balance in the room.

Mid Painting:

I did three coats of the paint just to ensure maximum coverage.  And I'm really happy with the results.

There she is, serving her purpose with style.  That's a "How to Identify Pacific Salmon" brochure pinned on the left.  Just in case I need to be able to distinguish between a Chinook and a Coho at a moments notice. Lol.

So far we've pinned a bunch of things to it and it hides the old holes pretty well.  You really have to look close to see where I've previously used it.

I might Rub 'n Buff the silver edge, but for now I'm quite pleased with it.

Lindsay.

I linked up to Sarah at Thrifty Decor Chick.