In the creative industry, inspiration can come from anywhere and at anytime. With creative juices constantly flowing, we decided we needed a place to capture ideas, interesting news, articles, ads, and notes. tba needed an “inspiration board!” What started so simple an idea, ended up being quite a team effort. Read on for some inspiration.

MATERIAL CHOICE | STRATEGY

After doing a lot of research on large bulletin boards, magnetic boards, cork boards, blogs, etc. I came across this post by Shiso Mama and this one by Martha Stewart. We decided that by using a recycled material and painting the board we would be able to help the environment and get exactly what we wanted at the same time. So Homosote it was! I called Lowes, Home Depot, and every other local hardware spot in between and the majority of the people I spoke with responded with confusion and comments like, “Homo-what!” Finally, 84 Lumber in Pearisburg, VA, who has great customer service, by the way, said they would be able to get a 4’ x 8’ board shipped to the Salem, VA store in two days! I was there by noon that day to pick it up.

On my way back from 84 Lumber in Salem, VA with the Homasote board in tow

Thomas and Chris helping to carry in the board from Carolyn’s Explorer

Chris and Thomas unloading and carrying in the board

Christina admiring the board before it got painted

DESIGN | STRATEGY

We really wanted the board to be simple and not take away from the pieces we hung on it, so we decided to paint it white and use yellow and red stripes to match our space. Luckily we had a few old cans of wall paint that Lowe’s kindly shook up for us. I applied two coats of primer and two coats of white. Then Christina and I adhered painter’s tape, to make sure the lines were perfect! For the stripes I put down two coats of tba red, and two coats of tba yellow. Ariel and Carolyn then had a lot of fun removing the tape. And we were finished…or so we thought.

Ariel and Carolyn removing the painters tape!

After several days of painting and clean up, I began the detail work

HANGING | CREATIVITY

After painting, we ran into the issue of hanging the board on a wall that had no studs or support! Lowe’s in Christiansburg, VA had a solution. They suggested we use ¼ inch Steelworks Systems Toggle Bolts (and we ended up using all eight!) Thomas, Chris, Ariel, Dave, Christina, Sonja & I made sure the board was hung properly and aligned on the wall. We all contributed to make sure the inspiration board was a success (and not a liability). This was a true team effort!

Thomas helping screw the board into the wall

Carolyn and Ariel making sure everything is straight

The inspiration board up and painted!

PURE INSPIRATION | RESULTS

Since the board was hung, there have been several posts from our employees, both internal success stories and work from outside inspiration.

From this day forward we will be able to share and contribute our ideas and success stories. We hope that you will do the same and tell us about it!

The first posting on the board!