The Mystery Project Revealed

The weekend was damp, gray and – compared to normal temps for this time of year – cold. It gave me the perfect excuse to stay inside and finish a long-running project.

So, if you take some of these… (roughly 20 feet worth)
And add them to this …

What do you get? Maybe, you end up with one of these ...
It’s a new “daily specials” board for my godparents’ restaurant. It’s both magnetic and dry-erase. Currently, they are using a frameless 2x3 piece of dry erase. It looks cheesy!

This project was a lot more difficult than I anticipated for two reasons. First, I didn’t want the board to get too heavy. Second, I would need to enclose it both front and back because at least part of the back will be visible at any given time. (The board lives on an easel. We already got them a nice easel. Can’t wait to see the two pieces together!)

Finding fluted trim that wasn’t 6 inches wide was tough. Even this trim was wider than I wanted initially but I bought what I could find. It also needed to be wide enough to hold the corner rosettes. So, again, this trim was a compromise. Here’s what I did:

· I cut the horizontal boards 2 inches wider than the dry-erase surface so that once I attached the vertical boards, I didn’t use up as much writing space.
· I attached the horizontal and vertical boards for the front first to each other using corner brackets. Then, I used LiquidNails to attach the boards to the dry-erase board. (I had removed those ugly plastic corner and the board laid nicely inside the gaps.)
· Then, I took strips of 11/16-inch square trim and ran it along the back of each front piece, gluing them in place with LiquidNails.
· Then I took the horizontal and vertical boards for the back and screwed those into the trim pieces, effectively connecting front and back boards using #4x3/4-inch wood screws.
· After caulking all the gaps, I glued the rosettes to the front corners.

Isn't it pretty? It still needs a bit of touch-up paint (all of the painting is the mother's handiwork)and then it will be ready for delivery!

While this board is going to be used in a commercial setting, this is something you could do for your home or office, too. I’m thinking about doing one for my new office space! Notice I said thinking … I’m still smarting from all of the effort that went into this bad boy!