Thursday, January 7, 2010

Pottery Barn Bingo Board Copy Cat

When I saw the Pottery Barn Bingo board I knew I had to have it. It measures 40x40, is hand painted, and was priced at 149.00- not too bad for pottery barn. I decided this would be the item I'd ask my husband to get me for Christmas. Well... by the time we got around to ordering these were unavailable. I searched ebay and craigslist in hopes of finding one, but no luck. So, I decided to make it myself. When thinking about how I would accomplish this, my first thought was to use the picture from the PB catalog, print it on a transparency and project it onto my wood. (I happen to own an overhead projector) After tracing the whole image onto a piece of MDF that Mr. Right had left over in the garage, I realized it needed to be painted first- UGH! However, that made me think a little more about the design and I decided to go about it completely differently. First I wanted the numbers to be customized to our family, so I took all of our birth dates, wedding date, baptism date, etc. and plotted it on a piece of paper. Now, we have a ton of September birthdays, so it was a little tricky, but I was able to do it. I also decided to use vinyl as a stencil- I wanted everything to be painted so I could do some distressing at the end. Here's the original PB bingo board:
Here's an up close of my copycat. I decided not to distress it all over- I think I was mostly afraid I would damage it too much. Look closely and you'll see the following dates:
7-14-90 Wedding date, 11-9-64 Mr. Rights Bday, 3-30-90 my baptism date, 9-11-89 my 20's bday, (Now it gets a little trickier) 9-3-69 my bday, 9-25-92 my 17's bday, 8-11-97 my 12's bday, 11-16-98 my 11's bday, 9-29-03 my 6's bday, 1-22-09 my babies bday, 4/91 the month Mr. Right and I were sealed in the Arizona Temple, the number 6 for all our six beautiful children, the number 2 because we bought our house 2-2-02, and finally the number 10 because I made this in 2010.

And here's how I did it... Here's the MDF (this scrap piece was 29 inches wide and 40 plus inches long so I taped it off to make a 29x29 square (a little smaller than the PB one) I then painted 2 coats of creamy white.

Next I taped off my center square and penciled in my bingo grid. Then I cut out BINGO in vinyl on my circuit. This is blackoak font- I thought it matched the PB font perfectly. For the O, I just placed a star over the O (I have the sure cuts a lot (SCAL) software for my circuit- I HIGHLY recommend it- go to scrappingtable.com for more information

Five coats of Ralph Lauren Longjohn red on the border, over the vinyl. Then carefully peel off the vinyl.
I made a little hole using tweezers, then peeled off.

Next I cut all of my numbers with my cricut using Headline A regular font. I saved the actual numbers for a future project and just used the negative as a stencil. If I had known from the beginning I wasn't going to use vinyl I would have cut my numbers out of stencil paper.


I painted the inside of the numbers black and carefully removed the vinyl after the paint was mostly dry. At this point I had to cut off the extra 12 or so inches of my MDF board. This should really have been done first, but I'm participating in Shanty2Chic "I did it without my hubby" post and I was a bit nervous about using the circular saw while he was at work. So, with Mr. Right standing close by I used a circular saw and cut off the excess board (Not as scary of an experience as I had anticipated- yea me!) I then painted the raw edge, sanded up the upper edges and applied a coat of Ralph Lauren Smoke glaze to antique it a bit. I really love how it turned out and my kids love finding their special day on the board. Tell me what you think. Oh, by the way, I finally found the PB Bingo board on ebay- Buy it now for $329.00- "How ridiculous," I thought. But when I checked it the next day, it had SOLD! Lucky for me I made mine with all materials I already owned. Hope you enjoyed, Love, Kelly


I'm participating in
A Soft Place to Land DIY
Cottage Instincts Make it for Monday



24 comments:

  1. I seriously don't get how you make stuff like this. First, the patience and second the creativity. You better win that contest!
    I continue to be in awe.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow!
    My question to you is:
    When do you sleep?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love this idea and I love that you added personal dates for your family. I think I have to make this. Thanks for sharing. FYI~ I think I will add magnetic paint and make magnets for the board. BDAYS & Anniversaries. Cool. Thanks again.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Turned out beautiful. If only I had a cricut! Love it!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love how you personalized this project-- so much more meaningful than if you had bought the PB piece! Great job!

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is gorgeous. So inspirational. Pottery Barn is my favourite shop but we don't have one in the UK. I filled a whole suitcase with stuff I bought at Pottery Barn last time I was stateside! I make a lot of stuff but not to your standard unfortunately .. yet!
    Thanks for the tutorial.

    ReplyDelete
  7. LOVE IT! Good Job! Yet another reason to buy a Cricut!

    ReplyDelete
  8. It looks great! What really struck me from your post was the fact that one of your daughters shares my daughter's birthday, but a different year. Then I read further, and saw that my other daughter was born on the exact day and year as yours. That is kind of neat!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I love that! You did a great job. I want to make something similar except a scrabble board for the family room!

    ReplyDelete
  10. It looks great and I love that you personalized it to your family. I might just have to copy your copy cat. Happy New Year!

    ReplyDelete
  11. That is seriously so adorable, I think I like it better than the PB version! Great job!

    ReplyDelete
  12. great job! I love how you personalized it and made it your own with numbers that meant something to you. It looks great in your room hanging up there.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Your board turned out great! So sorry I didn't around to giving you the instructions...doesn't look like you needed them! :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Ok, that is adorable. I might have to make me one too. :0)

    ReplyDelete
  15. FABULOUS!!!! I love it even more that you used numbers that are special to your family. I just love seeing knock offs. I'm sure Pottery Barn is not. But too bad. If they didn't charge such high prices, we wouldn't have to knock them off. Thanks for sharing this. I love it!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  16. I really like the sentimentality of it. Once Han Solo is born (and we have all the birth and christening dates), I may have to make one of these! Thanks for the tutorial!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Why can't I see the pictures of the boards?

    ReplyDelete
  18. Marilyn,
    I'm so sorry- My online picture account was full and so all my photos were deleted, which deleted them from my blog!

    ReplyDelete