31 Days of Pintrest DIY: Day 3 The Message Center

I love these beautiful message centers. What a great way to stay organized. Today's inspiration from Pintrest comes from My Idea Home. I believe these pieces are so great because they are from Pottery Barn. I love Pottery Barn, however they are definitely not in my skimpy decorating budget.

Enter the DIY.

Here we are in my sons room once again. He is a master of organization. I knew he would love a message center, so I put one together for him.

My first idea was to use car parts because he loves cars and tears them apart all the time. I rummaged around in the garage and came up with some old license plates. They are rather soft metal, so I folded them in half and attached them to a chunk of wood I found in our tool shed. Then I added a few bits of old chain to the sides of the plates (there were already holes there to link it through) to keep the mail from falling out. Lastly I scrounged around and found a rusty knob and hook to hang his keys on. I think my family thinks I have truly lost my sanity. Perhaps I have.

Then I found a couple more spare plates and decided to make them part of the overall design.

The pin board I happened to find at a thrift store for $2.50. What a deal.

I loved the bamboo texture on the pin board when I bought it. I added a spare utility bar and baskets to the bottom of the frame for extra storage. The bar and baskets are from IKEA, I usually use them under my kitchen cabinets for cooking supplies. I think I paid around $3.00 for them. They work great for clutter like head phones, pictures and cell phones.

The wipe off board is made from a salvaged frame I had and a piece of powder coated metal we found lurking in the furnace room. My husband came to me and said, "Hey honey, I found this piece of metal and I thought you could do something with it." I love it when we think alike. I had hoped it would be something our son could use magnets on but it's not magnetic. That's okay, I like it as it is. The wipe off markers come off easily with a damp cloth. 

There you have it. I spent a whopping $2.50 on this project. Most of it was just stuff we had laying around the house. I am sure if we had purchased the Pottery Barn items it would have cost a couple hundred dollars. I am hoping that my son takes the message center off to college with him, and that all his friends think it's super cool that his Mom made it for him.

Designer Mom