DIY on the fly

I like DIY. I'm not especially good at it but I get things to work. I'm one of those people who doesn't plan and kinda makes it up as I go along. Usually I have an idea form in my mind and I run with it, adding or subtracting bits as I come across the various problems that are thrown up. My creations may not always be pretty but I get them to do what I need them to do. Today was a case in point. I had decided to move the cork board in the kitchen to a new place, namely the fridge door.

The cork board had previously been used as a door on a press I built in the kitchen, but I recently put new proper doors on that unit and I thought putting the cork board back onto the new doors would detract from the look of them. Rather than re-using the cork board I'd re-purposed into a door, I was using a new cork board I'd bought in Ikea a few months ago and never got around to using. (I LOVE Ikea!)

My first idea to secure the cork board to the fridge door was by using magnets. I super-glued four magnets to each of the corners of the board and offered it up to the fridge door.

I quickly realised that there was no way that these magnets were gonna hold it in place, even if I used all the rest of the magnets I had. The board was far too heavy. So I had to think of a new plan.

The second idea I had was to use picture hooks. I'd hot glue two at the bottom to hold it up and two at the sides to stop it tipping forward.

First I tried just attaching the bottom two hooks with the sticky back stuff it comes with, just to test out my idea before committing with the hot glue. Although they did manage to hold the board up the gap on the hook part wasn't deep enough to let the cork board sit in it. They kinda sat on top of the hooks rather than being held by them. I tried gently widening the gap and ended up breaking the plastic hook in two.

Plan B didn't go too well so I decided I should give up on that and start onto plan C. I rummaged around in one of my DIY boxes for something that would have a wider gap to hold the cork board and that could be attached to the fridge door. I'm a little bit of a hoarder so I have lots of odd bits and pieces in various boxes and tins to look in. My philosophy is that I can always find a use for these things, and invariably I do. I came across some metal things that looked like they might fit the criteria with a little bit of modification. Once I'd fixed them up a bit I tested them on the cork board and they were almost a perfect fit. See what I mean about finding a use for everything! ;)

Once I was sure that the metal pieces were going to do what I wanted them to I attached them to the fridge door using hot glue.

I attached two at the top and two at the bottom in a way that I can still slide the cork board out if I ever need to but it is securely held against the door for normal use.

I was fairly happy with the end result.

From start to finish it probably took me about 3 quarters an hour, though that did include searching time. Hope you enjoyed the post. :)