How To Make A Personalized DIY Map Cork Board

If you are a regular reader of Pictureboxblue, you will know I have a thing about vintage maps, and I’m always looking for new ways to display them in my home. This time I’ve made a DIY map cork board for my home office.

I already have a homemade world map desk in my office and personalized map pillows so this map cork board will fit right in.

The best thing about this cork board is that I didn’t have to choose just one map but could pick several from some of my favorite cities and countries around the world. I picked maps that reminded me of some of my special vacations.

The Maps Used For The Cork Board

For my DIY map corkboard, I just printed some of the wonderful vintage maps already on Pictureboxblue. As there were plenty to choose from and they covered most of the places I wanted.

If there aren’t the maps you want to use on the site, you can just scan in and use any map you want. I did this with the Hong Kong map I used.

The maps printed directly from Pictureboxblue included New York and Paris city maps. I also printed maps of the family favorite vacation destinations of Scotland, Norway and Canada.

The great thing about this DIY cork board is that you can add to it with more map hexagons. I might add a new map after each special vacation.

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What You Need

• Hexagon cork tiles – these come in packs of eight and are about 20cm wide. You can get ones that have a sticky back so that they are easy to mount on the wall.

• Printable fabric sheets
• Spray adhesive
• Scissors and pen

How To Make A DIY Map Cork Board

1.. First, decide on what maps you want to use and whether or not they are available online, or if you have to scan in your own. If you are looking for a map of a specific area then MapBox is a great tool to use. There is a tutorial here on how to use Mapbox to find the right map.

2. Then print the maps you want onto the fabric sheets just using your home inkjet printer. When printing onto fabric sheets, I make sure that I choose the best quality print options in my printer menu advance settings.

I also make sure that the bit of the map I want to use is in the center of the page. With most printers, you can adjust the position and scale of the map in the printer menu settings. Just make sure you do a print preview check before actually printing the map, or print a test run on normal paper.

Top tip: You can actually make your own printable fabric sheets at a much cheaper cost using freezer paper and old sheets.

3. Print out one map for each hexagon tile.

4. Next, place a cork board hexagon over the bit of the map you want to use. Then draw around the hexagon with a pen.

5. Then, following the pen lines cut out the map hexagon shape with scissors.

6. Next, carefully remove the paper backing from the fabric printed map. It should simply just peel away.

7. Then spray the cork board hexagon with spray adhesive and stick the fabric to the surface.

8. Carry on until all the cork hexagons are covered in maps. Then play around with arranging the hexagons into different shapes.

Another one of the advantages of making a DIY map cork board with individual hexagons is that you can arrange the board into different shapes.

9. Once you are happy with your cork board arrangement stick them to the wall one by one until you get the shape you are happy with.

The map fabric on the cork board is very robust and won’t tear with the pushpins. The cork tiles could have been decoupaged with maps printed on paper but I think the fabric is better.

If you prefer a map magnetic pinboard then there is a tutorial for one here, which includes travel tag magnetic pins. This cork board would also look great in a den or teen bedroom.

If you are looking for other personalized map gift ideas, check out these map shells. Or these embroidered map ornaments.

For more map craft ideas visit DIYideacenter.