There's a Wildebeest in my Office! | The Vintage Rug Shop

Help! A wild, rabid, hairy wildebeest is roaming my office! Nah, just kidding. He’s only made of papier–mâché and safely nailed to a cork board.

I bought this papier–mâché wildebeest head from West Elm, the same night I attended the SF Pinterest meet-up. He’s such a bad-ass! I brought him home and the BF just laughed at me, and asked “and where do you think you’re putting that?” I anticipated his reluctance in accepting this paper pasty creature, I had already devised a plan to hang him in my office. I just needed something to make him pop!

For kicks and giggles, here’s a pic of his distant cousin, stomping about on the plains of Africa.

I mentioned earlier, I wanted to display the head on something that would make it pop. I was not a fan of hanging him bare, white art on white walls never works, plus, no one would notice. I had purchased some fabric a few weeks back from Home Fabrics & Rugs, literally the most awesome fabric store I’ve ever been to. The selection of luxury upholstery-width fabrics for $3.99-$12.99 yard. If you adore Pottery Barn fabrics, I guarantee you’ll find them here. You’ll never buy fabric from JoAnne’s again. This store has locations all over the US, I suggest you look for one near you, or just shop online.

Back to the point – I bought remnants of this red and off-white curvy printed fabric (for $.99/yard!) and thought to utilize it somehow as a background to display the wildebeest head. Since I wanted to display him in my office, I decided to personalize a cork board and hang him in the center, that way I could pin other pictures and important things around him.

Here’s the step by step in creating a personalized cork board, and it only takes 2 hours to complete!

1. Take your cork board out in a well ventilated area, then tape off the cork area with paper or plastic bags. I acquired the largest cork board ever, it’s approximately 3′ x 5′.

2. Apply 2 coats of your choice of spray paint to the frame. Let the first coat fully dry before applying the second. I suggest using primer if you have a black frame, but in this example I chose to skip primer.

Rust-Oleum’s Heirloom White to the rescue! I know, I know. I’ve used this same color of spray paint on many projects, but I love it and in this case it matched perfectly with the off-white curvys in the fabric.

3. Lay the fabric down on top of the cork board, measure, then cut. Make sure the print is positioned straight when you lay it down. It would be very unfortunate if you didn’t notice until after you cut your fabric that your print drifting up or down .

See? The color of the frame matches perfectly with the print. Also, the print is reversible! I plan to make pillows with the left-overs.

4. Glue the fabric around the edges of the frame with a hot glue gun.

5. Your frame should look like this after the fabric has been glued down. Trim off any excess fuzz or fabric strings.

6. Hang your personalized cork board in its desired location, and start pinning pictures, notes, cards, or a piece of art like my wildebeest head. So easy!