A run for my money

I have the perfect spot in my house for a Pottery Barn inspired organization wall.  My kitchen had a strip of wall that was covered with a bulletin board installed by the sellers, good idea but not quite what I had in mind. This was my inspiration, Pottery Barn wall organization system.



This is what my wall looked like with the cork boark and then after I removed it:

It wasn't as easy as just buying the PB organization system because the width was one inch too wide, just my luck.  So my neighbor, Andy, said he would help me build the framed cork board, chalkboard and linen ribbon board.  I was excited at the thought of building this but always kept an eye out in case I stumbled upon a framed wall system and it finally happened!  I just happened to be in Home Goods and came across this:

Which I planned to hang like this:

And because of all the scratches I was given a little discount so I bought the frame home for $27.00!  Building this would have been fun but after materials and labor I would have spent more than I did buying it and fixing it up.

Nothing is ever as easy as it seems.  I ended up sanding and paint this four times before I was able to get the scratches completely covered.  I first tried wood filler which worked but did not cover well with the spray paint, so we tried again with spackle:

And priming again:

But after a week of sanding, spackling, priming, and painting, I present to you my wall organization board!

As always the work I put in was worth it but this little frame really did give me a run for my $27.00!  Have any of you bought something from a home store knowing from the start you would have to fix it?  Please share!

See you swoon,