The Great Pegboard Project of '11

I know I've been pushing a lot of buildup for this post over the last few weeks, but we've finally got the pegboard up and most of our supplies organized. I'm not quite done organizing it yet, I ended up ordering some little jars and bins for our smaller supplies. But I decided to go ahead and write about it before I mentally block out what a pain in the ass it was to do.

Proof that some fun was had.

Let's start off with our supply list. Note that this is not intended to be a tutorial, more like a cautionary tale (just kidding, it wasn't that bad).
Supplies:

- 5'x3' Pegboard

- 1"x2" boards for frame

- 3" Coarse thread drywall screws

- 3/4" wood screws (which got lost)

- Washers

- Stud finder

- Power Drill

- High Gloss Exterior Latex Paint base color and two accents

- Pegboard accessories (thankfully including more small screws to replace the lost 3/4" screws)

First we had to acquire the pegboard, after much searching of craigslist and discovering that a sheet of pegboard at Home Depot only costs about $12 we decided to spring for the new stuff. Pegboard comes in 4'x8' sheets so you'll have to have it cut down to the size you want.

We got a little bit ahead of ourselves here and decided to go ahead and paint the board first, and it worked out okay since we were able to make the frame while the paint dried. the best kind of paint to use is high gloss exterior latex paint since it makes the pegboard very easy to clean. It's important to put only a small amount on the roller as the paint can pool in the holes and clog them.

Once we knew what size pegboard we wanted we had to calculate the lengths of 1x2s we would need for the frame. The part that makes this the most interesting is that 1x2s are actually not 1" by 2" they are 3/4" x 1 1/2". Don't ask me. You'll need two pieces the length of the board and four pieces that are the height of the board minues three inches. We had two 60" boards and four 33" boards.

Making the frame was not the easiest task, it involved splitting boards, splinters, and even a little cussing. We used the stud finder to measure out where the middle supports needed to be, standard studs are about 16" apart, and so are ours it turns out.We figured having at least three of the vertical frame pieces on studs was good enough so we placed one 16" from the edge and another 32" from the first, so that both the middle supports and one edge were on studs.

Once my oh-so-patient boyfriend finished all the pre-drilling and screwing of the frame, we lined it back up with the studs (which we marked of course, don't forget to mark them) and screwed it to the wall. Two drywall screws in each vertical support was plenty.We used the high tech method of "eye-balling it" to make sure the frame was level, I would recommend using a level, but we don't have one. It turned out just fine anyways.

After the frame was up and the first coat of paint was dry, we got to the fun part. This is the part shown above in the photo

Be sure to use a drop cloth for this part.

proving that I actually smiled at least once during this process: splatter painting! Heaven forbid we have a boring pegboard so we picked up two different colors of premixed paint test jars from Home Depot to do a two colored splatter pattern. These little jars have brushes built right into the lids, so you don't even have to get a good brush messy.

We splattered a sage green color first, and after it dried, a golden yellow color. Be sure to check all the holes for large drips of paint so they don't get clogged. And if you paint it outside like we did, give it a good once over for trapped bugs. Only one mosquito was harmed in the making of this pegboard.

After the paint was all dry it was time to put this baby up on the frame. As I mentioned above, we bought 3/4" wood screws for this purpose, but when it came time to mount the pegboard they were nowhere to be found. I'm sure they'll turn up months from now. Luckily in one of the sets of accessories

Spacers are completely optional.

we bought were some screws with spacers. These are intended to be used when mounting a much lighter pegboard, so you can forgo the frame. Even with the frame they are helpful and provide a little extra space cushion. We also placed washers into the equation since the screws were barely bigger than the holes.

The spacers help by providing extra space behind the board, and allowing you to use the holes on the very edge of the pegboard. However, using screws without them allows you to place anchor screws into the middle vertical frame pieces, which you cannot do with spacers. So it's up to you to decide what will work best for your needs.

We started by screwing down the four corners, and then adding in screws midway down the sides, and two more screws evenly spaced along the top and bottom edges. So if you decide to leave the spacers out, you would also put a couple screws into the middle frame pieces as well. Unlike when putting the frame together, it's not really necessary to pre-drill the holes for these screws.

Now that we had the pegboard secure I started arranging our supplies. I used a bunch of the standard hooks that come in the accessories kit to hang up our measuring tapes, scissors, rotary blade, ruler, embroidery hoops and thread. I used a few larger supports to hang up a dowel holding all of our ribbons. The part I like the most

I'll post an update when it's completely done.

so far is that I was able to mount one of our storage bins which has small removable boxes on the board, putting all of our binding and other notions is arms reach. The big blank space is going to be filled up with little hanging jars of buttons, and bins for little items like sewing machine needles and small tools. I also had a large plastic bin leftover from my kitchen project, so I used that to hold all of our pens, and care tags.

I'm really excited with how it's turned out so far, and I'll post again when I have all the jars and bins up and organized. Our sewing room is finally coming together, and I think that we will be well prepared to take on the holiday season this year.