Make an Easy Message Board Using Your Favorite Fabric and a Metal Basket

Find an unexpected use for a print you love with a DIY project that uses a metal basket and magnets.

By: Lori Johnston and

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My love of coffee is well known throughout my family, so my mother-in-law found this print of a coffee cup on fabric. I adored it, but I wasn’t sure what to do with it. I tried hanging it on a rod. That didn’t work. I was worried the fabric wouldn’t lay flat if I tried to frame it myself, and the design was so close to the edge that the frame covered up part of the image. It would have cost more than $100 for a professional to frame it. Instead, with help from my sister-in-law, we put the print to use as a magnet board that also framed it in an unexpected way.

Tools and Materials

shallow metal basket
fabric
hot glue gun
magnets
spray adhesive

picture-hanging wire
chain
scissors
wire cutters

Trim the fabric to fit within the basket.

To make sure the coffee cup lay centered, we folded the fabric in half so the image would be in the middle of the fabric. Crafting hack: To make it easier to cut the fabric and keep it in a straight line, we lined up the fabric with a groove in our deck.

Snip off the top of the fabric and discard (save for future projects).

Fold the edge of the fabric to create a seam. Use a ruler or a straight edge to make sure you get an even seam. Then use hot glue to secure the seam. We started with the top and then went to the sides. We did not have to hot glue the bottom of the fabric because there was already a sewn seam.

Remember to trim the extra fabric on the corners so that it won’t stick out.

To adhere the fabric to the basket, apply spray adhesive on the back of the fabric. It's best to spray it outside or in a well-ventilated area.

Affix the fabric to the metal basket. Press down and smooth out the fabric to make sure it sticks to the basket and doesn't bubble.

Hang the magnet board from a chain. We considered twine or leather, but found two necklace chains and connected them to fit. We looped one end of the chain around the top of the basket then used picture-hanging wire to tighten and loop. Then repeated the process for the other side.

For the final touches, add simple black magnets.

In about 20 minutes, the fabric was framed as a one-of-a-kind magnet board, perfect for reminders, messages and even notes reminding me when it’s time to buy more coffee.