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I love a big pinboard.

I think it dates back to design school, when I got my first studio space and had a whole 5 feet square of pinnable wall space to cover with my ideas and inspirations. There was something magical about that ever-changing display. It allowed me to open up the wild chaos of my mind onto physical space and see what was there. It was a tool for ideating creative projects, but it also helped me discover my aesthetic and see how it developed over time.

When we moved into this house and I got my own home office (squee!!), I knew I wanted a giant fabric-covered pinboard to span most of one wall.

How to Make a Lightweight, Fabric-Covered Pinboard for Your Home Office

This wasn’t my first time making pinboards. I’d made two before for my Brooklyn apartment in 2007. For those I used homasote, a dense board made of compressed recycled paper, and then covered them with fabric I’d stapled to the back. I then drilled holes in the board and mounted them with long screws straight into the wall.

Homasote is a great substrate for pinboards, but the maximum size of a sheet is 4’ x 8’, and at that size the board would be quite heavy. Meanwhile, I was looking for a board that would be slightly wider (52”), and I didn’t want to end up with a seam between the two panels. I also was secretly hoping I could create a board lightweight enough to be mounted with Command strips. Part of the reason, I confess, was laziness (just didn’t want to deal with a drill) but also I wanted a perfectly clean edge without visible screws or screw covers.

You can see why I put this project off for more than a year. My list of requirements was long:

• Extremely lightweight
• Very large (52” wide, floor to ceiling)
• Self-healing, pinnable surface
• Fabric-covered

I figured someone must have done something like this before, so I scoured the web for tutorials. But honestly, I couldn’t find anything like what I was trying to do. So, I designed it myself.

The Secret to Making a Lightweight PinBoard

This design took hours and hours of research and testing, but I’m so excited by how it came out.

I knew that I could order 1/4” thick lightweight cork sheets cut to any size online, but the cork would be too floppy to hold the fabric tightly enough. So I knew I needed to laminate the cork to another material for stiffness. Initially, I tried a smaller test board with 1/4” MDF, and this was really nice, but way too heavy. I definitely would’ve needed to mount it directly into the studs.

In search of a lighter substrate, I landed on 1/4” foam core boards. Foam core is an incredibly lightweight material with an acceptable amount of stiffness. Ideally, I would’ve liked to use 4’ x 8’ sheets, but delivery to my address was prohibitive, so I used the 40” x 60” inch ones.

My finished board dimensions were 80” x 52”, so that meant 2 sheets of foam core laid next to each other. The widest dimension of cork you can order is 48”, so I ended up ordering one 40” x 80” and one 12” x 80” to avoid having a flimsy little strip. (You can see how I dealt with that strip in the video below.)

This quick sketch illustrates the layout of the cork and the foam core. The seam in the foam core runs horizontally and the seam in the cork runs vertically which gives the design a little more strength. I also added some artist’s tape to the seam in the foam core before gluing.

Materials Needed to Make the Pinboard

Here’s what I used for this pinboard:

• Cork sheets cut to your dimensions (source)
• Foam core boards (source)
• Craft glue (I like this one)
• Long (24”) ruler
• Cutting mat
• X-acto knife with a fresh blade
• Fabric of your choice, prewashed and ironed (I used this one because it’s affordable, lightweight, and comes in a slightly wider width than other fabrics. I do not recommend using a pattern for this DIY — patterns are harder to line up on the board, and I personally think solids make better backgrounds for pinboards because they let the inspiration shine through.)
• Glue gun
• Fabric scissors

Making the Pinboard

This video shows the whole process of making the pinboard. (If the video doesn’t appear below, click here to watch.)

I’ll talk you through the basic steps here.

Step 1: Glue the foam core and cork together

First you glue the foam core and cork sheets together, weighting them down with books or other heavy objects. Ideally you want to use something flat, because foam core compresses easily and can get dented or nicked (don’t kneel on it or put pressure on it while you’re working!).

Step 2: Glue the second piece of cork (if you have one)

In the video, I show how to line the second piece of cork up tightly to make sure there are no gaps when you glue it.

Step 3: Let the board dry overnight

You might only need a few hours but I’d leave it overnight to be safe.

Step 4: Trim the excess foam core

If you have excess, use the ruler, x-acto, and cutting mat to get a nice clean cut at the edge.

Step 5: Remove the weights

Now you can check that the two boards adhered well before going on. You will notice the board is not stiff — it has some movement, especially if you’re doing a really big one, so you want to be gentle as you move it around.

Step 6: Lay out the fabric and align the board on top

I like to leave about 1-2 inches on all sides. You don’t need more than that, or it will get bulky.

Step 7: Use hot glue to secure the fabric to the board

I recommend starting with the short sides and do the opposing sides first. Then work down the long sides. The reason is that you want to get good tension in the fabric — taut, but not so much that it bends the board. Working opposite sides first helps you make sure you’re pulling it evenly.

Leave the corners for last. There’s no science to this — just fold them in neatly. I like to pull in one direction first and secure with glue, then pull the other direction and gently tack down with the glue gun. Kind of like the corners on a well-made bed. You want to avoid a bunchy, bulky corner. You can trim away a little of the excess fabric but be careful not to cut too close to the corner!

Step 8: Gently flip your board over and admire your handiwork!

That’s it! You now have a giant, fabric-covered lightweight pinboard you can put in your home office, use to display kids art, or use anywhere you want to be able to put up some inspiration!

Securing Your Pinboard to the Wall

Ok, so I had a crazy vision of using Command strips for this, and I’m going to fully admit that this is an “off-label” usage. This board is definitely within the weight limit for the heavy duty Command strips, but it’s much bigger than recommended. The heavy duty strips are a little like Velcro — there are two sides that fit together to hold the item in place.

To combat this, I just put about a million Command strips on the back. (Ok, 16 of them, but it was a lot.) Then we followed the directions to the letter. The hardest part is that once you press the board with the Command strips into the wall, you’re supposed to remove the board so that the adhesive can really cure, and then hang it back up. This was not easy because if you just pull, the strips come right off, so we resorted to using the long rule to slide in between the two sides of the Command strips to gently separate them.

I’m not gonna lie, it was dicey, and the ruler did scuff the wall so I will have to repaint that section when this comes off. It feels like a reasonable price to pay but fair warning!

This part is definitely a two-person job and you will want a level (or in my case, a former architect husband who is essentially a human level) to make sure the board is straight. When we first put it up, it was not perfectly straight, but the beauty of the Command strips is that they work fine even if you rotate 1 degree because there’s still plenty of surface area for the two sides to catch.

The Result

The day after we put it up I came down and was pleasantly surprised to find it still on the wall. It feels pretty solid, even though it’s very light. The cork and fabric are endlessly repinnable and I’ve been having so much fun arranging and rearranging my inspiration wall. I’m somewhat addicted and contemplating another one for over my desk.

What I’d Do Differently

Honestly, not much, except maybe plan out the install a little better. I tend to wing those kinds of things and I wish I’d blocked out the location with some taped blocks of foam core so that we could’ve just eased it into position. But that’s a minor quibble. Mostly I’m just so happy I figured out a different way to do this!

Do you have any questions about this DIY? Drop them in the comments and I’ll get you answers. If you try it, please tag me on Instagram so I can see your photos!

For more inspiration

Looking for ideas for what to put on your beautiful new pinboard? Here are some places to start.

• A simple trick to help you get inspired
• How to actually use your Pinterest boards
• How to break out of the algorithm and find new ideas

Reminder: Sign ups for the 5 Secrets to Designing a Feelgood Home are now open! Check the schedule for this year’s free live workshop here.