DIY Framed Cork Board World Map

This was one of those projects that was a labor of love. It was time consuming and took several trips to Home Depot and Lowes, however, the finished product is exactly what I wanted. So much so that I wanted to keep it for myself!

I made this giant world map for my boyfriend for Christmas. He is a pilot in the Navy and has traveled many places in the world. What better way to document the places he’s been then by putting pins on a cork board world map!

Supplies needed:

1. Roll of cork board

2. Giant printed world map

3. Wood

4. Trim

5. Liquid Nails

6. Paint

7. Paintable caulk

8. D Ring hooks and picture hanging wire.

8. Pins

I got inspirations from several places. I used THIS consolidated world map from The Sorry Girls. And Sassy Street told me I could blow up my map at Block Posters. You just upload your image and then choose the size. It even shows you what will print on each page and how many pages it will take. Pretty cool

Next you get to put your puzzle together. I just taped the edges.

I looked everywhere for cork board. Lowes and Home Depot only had shelf liner cork board. I ended up finding this roll at Michaels. You want it thick enough to be able to stick a pin in. With a 40% off coupon I got this roll for around $8. I would suggest rolling your cork board out so that it’s not so curly (I did not do this and wish I had).

Next pin your map onto the cork. I used an Xacto knife to cut around the countries/continents. I was precise but not super precise. I think if you have the overall shape of the country/continent then people will get the jest of what it’s supposed to be. For the smaller countries that were unrecognizable (I.e. Singapore, New Guinea) I kept the white paper pinned to them so I would remember what it was. Sometimes the smaller pieces of countries would break off. I was freaking out but it was pretty easy to just glue them back in place.

FYI: Be prepared to have carpel tunnel for a few days.

It took me about 4 episodes of House of Cards to cut out the entire world.

Next I laid out my map on the floor to get a measurement of how big of a board to get cut. I grossly overestimated. I measured 6 ft long and 3 1/2 ft. tall. Needless to say the board was huge and it was a sight to see me cramming it into my SUV. I didn’t get a super thick board because I didn’t want the map to get to heavy.

When I got the board in my living room, I laid out the cork world on the board again to check my measurements. Once I realized that my board was way to big, I measured off the new area and painted it blue. Once that dried, I used a jigsaw to cut off the excess. I may or may not have used the jigsaw in my apartment living room.

I used liquid nails to secure my cork map to the board. You can see how curled up Africa is. That was after I had something heavy sitting on it over night! I sat something heavy on every piece of cork to ensure that it was glued down really well. For the smaller countries (not pictured), I simply hot glued them.

Next it’s time to cut the trim. I used a miter box and saw for this part. It’s not hard but having an electric miter saw would have been about a thousand times faster.

I used liquid nails to secure the trim to the board.

I found every heavy thing I could in the house to lay on the trim to help hold it to the board.

You will end up having gaps between your trim. It’s ok, that’s what paintable caulk is for. It’s a miracle worker! Just fill in the corners and the gap disappears.

I used D-ring hooks and picture hanging wire so that it would be easy to hang it on the wall.

Just measure down from the top and in from the sides so that they are in the same place. Connect your wire from both hooks.

I decided to make flag pins with the name of the country he’s been too. I tried to remember a few places that he’s told me he’s been/lived. The US is much more full now!

I just printed off the name on cardstock. The name is on both sides of the flag and I just folded it over, hot glued it, and cut a little triangle on the end.