All Images / Copyright Mike Ahern
Last year whilst on a trip to Rome, I picked up a fun and rather striking cork pot stand with white geo-pattern detailing, from a Tiger store, as a little gift for my wonderful Sister. Nearly a year later this stylish cork cutie was such a hit in my Sister's home, that she really wanted a larger pin-board version to stand above her desk.
With her birthday fast approaching, and in a light-bulb moment of inspiration, I thought I had decided on the perfect gift. Despite my initial confidence in sourcing such a pin-board, with cork being very much in the limelight right now, it quickly became apparent that this early buoyancy was a little premature. There were one or two 'nearly' finds but nothing delivered the specific brief of white detailing on cork, so it was time to draw upon my own creative skills...
Unsurprisingly, plain cork pin-boards are far easier to source - I opted for Ikea's 'Vaggis' board because I liked the plain white frame, which I knew would match perfectly with my design. The next part was so simple to achieve, it was unreal! I used masking tape to achieve the desired pattern leaving a 2mm gap between each piece of tape. Finally I applied bright white emulsion to the masked-off areas (taking care not to overload the brush) and waited for the paint to dry.
As always, the big reveal was both exciting and a little tense, but the end result was just what I had hoped for!
Will you be getting creative this weekend...?
