Beach Scene Corkboard

A few days ago, I discussed ways to organise and display kid’s artwork, and briefly shared my corkboard display. Today I’m going to share with you how I made it.

We’ve been in our house just over two years, and I’m slowly adding a personal touch to the place. I have a picture in my mind of the kitchen and living area of the house having a bit of a beach theme, with white, blues and pale yellow being the colour palette.

I’ve wanted to put up some display boards for the kids’ art for a while (well, ever since the hook for the previous string display fell down, and the artwork started to pile up on the table). But I didn’t want it to be just a boring old cork or felt notice board. As I was getting more and more annoyed with the mess on the dining table, the idea popped into my head to paint cork notice boards with a beach scene – a small step towards creating my ideal room.

I bought two plain cork boards (580 x890mm) from an office supplies store – one for each child – going for the cheapest and lightest option I could find:

I’m no artist, I’m a crafter and these are not meant to be works of art (hey, I’m planning to pin my kids art all over them). I wasn’t looking to create a perfect beach painting (and seriously doubt I have the ability to do that. But I wanted to have a beach vibe. I googled “how to paint a beach” and came across this video on Youtube:

 

It’s simple and it’s exactly what I was after.

So I started with yellow paint for the sand, that I streaked a bit of white through to create texture. I actually just squirted a big blob of paint straight on the cork, and didn’t bother putting the paint on a palette.

Then I did the sky, with light blue paint, once again streaked with white:

Then I did the sea in aquamarine blue paint, with a bit of white and light blue streaked through. I found it best to do the darkest section last as it didn’t matter so much if it got blended a bit with the lighter colours.

Finally, for my piece of art I dabbed a bit of white at the edge of the sea to create a hint of whitewash/foam.

I wasn’t happy with the brown frame of the corkboard. It was varnished and paint wouldn’t stick to it, so I gave it a light sand and then painted the frame white.

I hung the two corkboards on the wall with Command Picture Strips – I love those things!

And then covered up my beautiful work of art with my kids’ art!

I love the beachy vibe and am happy that I’ve got a well defined spot to display my kids’ artwork.

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