Project: Cork Board Makeover

Please forgive my messy hair. My Aunt Barbara would be so embarrassed for me. She always insists that "the Scheers don't look like ragamuffins!" Well, I kind of do here. Sorry, Aunt Barbara!

Oliver and I have carved out a little workspace for ourselves in our living room. It's a perfectly well-appointed spot,  and while Oliver has done a whiz-bang job of making us a clutter- and paper-free office, I tell ya, a lot of STUFF comes with my work. I'll saunter over to a very clean, neat desk in the morning, and within minutes I'm overwhelmed with papers, samples, notebooks, invoices, etc. He has no trouble at all; his side of the desk is a beacon of tidiness. While working on a project, most interior designers like to see all the elements of a room – or the whole house/office/hotel, for that matter – together to be sure everything works cohesively. Between fabric samples, trims, tiles, paint and images of furniture, there's a lot to pull together and it's nearly impossible to do that without making a bit of a mess, and, in my case, completely taking over the whole living room. As much as I try to stay neat, by the end of the day, it looks like I'm sitting in the eye of a tornado.

For the longest time the wall next to my end of the shared desk was blank, beckoning for a cork board or something to pin up notes, reminders, samples, bills, etc. while I'm still working on them and before they get filed away. On a recent jaunt to Target in New Jersey, we found cork board that would suffice:


But it was ugly and we have a cute desk area, so I couldn't let some bare board bring down the whole look! I had a fabric sample (ok, I have a million) that a client rejected and it was big enough to cover the board. We got some little black carpet nails from Home Depot and set about covering the board.


As if I could keep it that bare for long. Here's what it looks like normally:


I don't know how I got along without it!