This is Part 1 of a two-part series. Check out this post, for the final product!

Melissa has been wanting a way to track our road trips, other than just in a photo album, or with videos, like this one of our trip to Texas. She decided on a pin board. We considered buying one, but since we’re DIYers, and cheap, we couldn’t imagine spending $300 + shipping on this option, as cool as it is.

Once she decided on this project, we started gathering supplies. At first, we had Melissa’s parents get us a free AAA map, but it was a bit small and just not really what we had in mind. So, Melissa bought a wall map from Rand McNally. She talked about that in this post.

Then a few days later, we went to Home Depot and gathered the rest of the supplies.  We bought two nominal 1″ x 2″ pine boards (I describe nominal here), one that was 96 inches (8 ft) and one that was 72 inches (6 ft).

Since the 96 inch board was the longest that was available, we were going to have to trim the map to make it work. The map was originally 50 inches by 32 inches, so we cut off an inch on each side, which was mostly white border, and ended up with it being 48 inches wide and 30 inches tall.

To start making the frame, I cut the 96 inch board down to two 48 inch pieces. Luckily the board was about 96.5 inches, and I was able to make a fresh cut on each end of the two pieces. This is an important step, because all factory edges aren’t square.

I did this same thing with the 72 inch board.  Because I needed the full width for the map, these next two boards needed to be the end cap, so I cut them an additional 1.5 inches to account for the top and bottom board thickness of .75 inches.

After cutting the boards to length, I set to work with sanding.  Since the faces of the boards were so narrow, I used a sanding block with 100 grit sandpaper for the first pass.  This method also allows you to “feel” the wood. I know, it sounds pretty stupid, but you can really feel the spots that are rough or smooth and the high or low spots.

Once all of the sides were sanded for the first time, I started assembling the frame.  I clamped my boards to the workbench, and I used 3 bits to pre-drill the holes where I was going to screw them together.

I used a 1/16 inch drill bit to drill the hole for the shaft of the screw, that was the depth of the screw. When you pre-drill holes, you want your drill bit to be the same width as the screw shaft, so only the threads of the screw are gripping into the wood.

Then, I used the two other bits to counter-sink so the head of the screw would be flush with the board.  The two bits I used were 3/8 inch, which was the size of the screw head, and 11/64 inch, which was in the middle of the other two bits I used.

Here’s what it looked like when I was done pre-drilling.

Then it was time to screw everything together. I used some leftover deck screws that I had from building my workbench.

(Insert cheesy photo of me holding the finished frame here)

Once each of the corners were assembled, I began round 2 of sanding. This time, I used the palm sander with 150 grit sand paper.  I used the sander this time, because it is easier to sand where the boards meet. Mainly because you don’t have to put as much focus on sanding with the grain. It was also quite a bit faster to fix the uneven joints in the corners that happens when you don’t clamp the project as secure as you should.

After getting the uneven joints smoothed out, I switched over to some 220 grit sandpaper for 3rd and final round of sanding.

After sanding, I prepped for staining by wiping away the sanding dust with a clean rag and then putting blocks under each corner to lift the frame off of the table.

We used Minwax Espresso.

I brushed on the first coat and let it sit for about 10 minutes before wiping it away.

It wasn’t quite as dark as we wanted, so after letting it dry four hours, I put on another coat.  This dried to a color we were happy with, so we proceeded to put the finish coat on.

We used a Rustoleum Clear enamel spray for the finish. Melissa sprayed 3 even coats, letting each coat dry for 30 minutes before adding the next coat.

For the backing, we spent a lot of time debating what was the best option. Melissa searched a ton of blogs and onion stores to see if she could get cork in a thick sheet for a decent price, with no luck. In fact, to buy cork backing for this project, it would have increased the cost by about $50! So, we decided to go with something else that we could pin into, which was fine since the cork wasn’t going to show anyway.

The material we ended up using for the map backing was Owens Corning R30 1/2 inch pink foam board. It’s used for insulation in construction purposes and you can find it at Lowes or Menards or Sutherlands or Home Depot, or any large hardware store probably. We got ours from our local Home Depot store. It wasn’t fun to get home from the store without a truck, but we made it.

We laid the finished frame on top of the foam and used a pencil to trace the interior edge of the frame and then cut the foam with a razor knife.  If you don’t use a new, sharp blade, the cut won’t be clean and won’t fit inside the frame neatly. It’s worth the few bucks to grab a nice blade, trust us on this one.

Next, we used some 3M Spray adhesive to glue the map to the foam.

Note: You’ll want at least two people for this portion of the project.

This was not a fun process so there’s no photos of us actually smoothing out the bubbles and trying to get a smooth finish. Just know that it helps to have two people (or more) and you need to work as fast as possible to get a good, smooth bond.

For the back of the frame, we bought a 4′ x 4′ x 1/8″ piece of tempered hardboard.  I ripped it in half and cut it down to just under 31.5 inches.  I pre-drilled some holes on the back for the nails I used.

The nails I had on hand were from a finishing nail gun. I used a pair of pliers to separate them from the stack.

I used a hammer to put them in and then finished them off with a punch.

We put the foam with the already-glued-on-map in the frame by sliding it in from the front with one of the back pieces attached in order to help us have a smooth finish on the front (no pushed up edges from squishing it into a tight frame.)

Then I added the second backing board and used a mix of spray adhesive and Gorilla tape to help keep the foam in place.

I used some leftover picture hanging materials to secure it to the wall.  I pre-drilled some holes on the back and used small eye hole screws and wire so we would be able to hang the map.

Here’s a sneak peak of the map, all ready to be hung.

Stick around for Melissa’s post tomorrow for the big reveal!

What do you think?  Ever made a similar “frontless” frame? Ever made a map pin board?