How To Make A Butterfly Pinboard Inspired By Pottery Barn

When I saw Monique Lhuillier bulletin board on Pottery Barn, I knew that I absolutely had to have it. It looks so gorgeous with all those butterflies floating around. Right? That's why I decided to make my own DIY butterfly pinboard. And I think it turned out magnificent.

I'm going to use it in the playroom that I recently renovated. You can see all the details about the playroom in the post here. My kids need a place to pin their art projects and I think this DIY pinboard would be a perfect solution.

It was quite an easy project and will be great for a beginner. I made the frame from scratch but you can use any frame that you have on hand. I didn't have any frame available, and also, I wanted to have a specific size 20 x 30". Surely, I could get a frame for it at the store but my handmade floating frame cost me only about $6 in wood.

Also, the frame doesn't have to be floating. As a matter of fact, I think if there is a clearance from the board and the frame it would make the butterflies look nicer. But obviously up to you. I'll show you how to make a floating frame today but you can adjust the depth of the board as you like.

For the pinboard, I used foam board. I was looking for a corkboard this size, but everything I saw was over my budget. I'm not sure how the foam board will hold up, I'll let you know as we use it more. Probably, the corkboard is a better choice. But foamboard is clearly the cheapest. I'm using ½" thick foam board so I think it should be fine.

There are a lot of ways to make butterflies for this project. I've never tried to work with epoxy before and I thought it was a great opportunity to try. And let me tell you it was so much easier than I thought it would be. After this project, I'm definitely so keen on trying to work more with epoxy resin.

So let's see how to make this DIY pinboard with butterflies.

Contents hide

1 Materials

2 Tools:

3 Instructions

3.1 Step 1. Making a floating frame.

3.2 Step 2. Add brackets to the back of the floating frame

3.3 Step 3. Make butterflies from epoxy

3.4 Step 4. Make and assemble the pinboard

3.5 Step 5. Attaching butterflies to the frame

Materials

(2) 2x4"x6'
20x30" foambord
Linen fabric
Epoxy
Butterfly molds (I used this and this) I found this mold after the fact but I think it would be perfect, especially the big butterfly.
Gold spray paint
Liquid gilding ( couldn't find mine but here is similar)
Wood glue
Spray adheisive
90 degree angle clamps (optional)
E6000 glue

Tools:

Instructions

Step 1. Making a floating frame.

I decided to make my corners mitered but they could also be straight.

First, measure the pinboard size. Mine was 20 x 30". Then you need to decide if you want the corners of the frame to be mitered or straight.

I decided to make mitered corners, so my measurements are a bit different than if it would be straight. I used the narrow side of the board on the front. Since I know that the narrow side is ¾", I added 1 ½" to each board plus the gap for the floating effect (¼" on each side).

This brought me to have two boards at 22" and two boards at 32".

Related: How to make a floating frame

Cut your boards at length using a 45° miter angle.

Fill gaps with wood filler and lightly sand them

To assemble it are used wood glue and 1 ¼" brad nails. Make sure to use a speed square at all times to make sure that the frame is level. I think these clamps would make your job a lot easier.

Step 2. Add brackets to the back of the floating frame

When the boards are attached, cut the supporting brackets. They could be any length. I think mine are about 8 inches each.

The placing of the brackets would depend on the depth you want the pinboard to sit in. I flipped the frame and put the pinboard down. This way I knew exactly where to put the brackets so the pinboard would be floating.

Attach them with wood glue and brad nails.

The depth depends on the thickness of the board

Step 3. Make butterflies from epoxy

As I mentioned before, instead of epoxy you could make them from clay, salt dough, or wood if you are a professional carver haha. I thought that clay and salt dough were probably not strong enough.

A while back I made drawer pulls from clay and they didn't hold up well. I also made ornaments from salt dough which held up great over the years but probably because no one touches them. And you can imagine that butterflies will go through the aggressive touching sessions as soon as my kids will see them😁🙈

To work with epoxy was easier than I thought, but maybe it's because it's such a small project. I wrote tips and what I've learned from my first experience working with epoxy and I recommend you read it before you start this project. I also share my thoughts about epoxy that dries up in 10 minutes.

Related: Tips on how to work with epoxy

But basically, mix the epoxy as per instructions and pour it into your mold. Wait for 24 hours and take it out.

I spray-painted my butterflies with this spray paint but you could also use acrylic paint, although I feel it would take much longer. I also spray-painted the frame.

When butterflies and the frame dried I used the liquid gilding to add some shine to them and a bit of an aged effect. It worked like a charm and made this DIY pinboard look sharp.

Leave them to dry and onto the next step!

PIN IT TO MAKE IT

Step 4. Make and assemble the pinboard

This part was probably the easiest. I got a piece of linen fabric and attached it to the board using spray glue and a Dremel glue pen to secure the edges on the back.

Note: before you start attaching the fabric make sure to iron it, the wrinkles would look terrible on it.

Use spray paint on the front and then carefully wrap the fabric around, folding the corners.

To attach foam board to the frame we'd need to use brad nails, but since I didn't have brad nails right size I just used E6000 glue. So far it's been holding up great!

Step 5. Attaching butterflies to the frame

This was such a satisfying process. I arranged butterflies (and even added some bees) and glued them with E6000 glue.

I think the best way to arrange them would be mixing up different kinds as well as different sizes of butterflies. Make sure to put them in a different order but go in the same direction. That would add dimension to the whole project and would look fabulous.

When the glue dried it discolored a bit and became red. I brushed liquid gilding on top of it and it covered the imperfections.