Homasote... it holds pushpins well, and you can cover it with say a bleached white burlap for texture, even a linen.. you might even prefer the look of the plain, gray Homasote as is.. you can get it at any lumber yard.

You could be an art director or just a home owner, a minimalist aesthetic isn't only about a lack of stuff. When it all comes down to it, you need useful quality furnishings and then you'll worry about how minimalist you need them to be. I'm sorry but foamcore on your walls sounds like a good idea to you? Think of function first. White is beautiful, it's luxurious, it shows EVERY imperfection possible. I can just imagine that cork tile thing with a thousand pinholes each with a different picture. You could instead go for a huge page album, where you could keep not just one but different inspiration pallets slightly more organized. It would be so much easier to find the perfect minimalist album for a lower price that wouldn't interfere with your space's aesthetics than anything chaotic hanging on the wall.

a matte finish magnetic/push pin board. they have those perforated tiles that you can use magnets or pushpins on.
that might be a simple solution and hanging a row or a block of them would be visually interesting with or without being covered.

the bullet board from umbra is exactly what i had in mind.

But how will you design your hope chest?

By the way, the clock there looks very lonely. Your cables are showing and putting your bag on the floor is bad luck, get a hook so you can hang it on the wall. Also I can only think of either the horrible glare or cold blueish hues an untreated window such as yours could give, use white drapes, they're less frilly yet provide a wonderful warm glow and will also cover that sore-thumb black.

Why not simply hang lines of string/fishing line/ribbbon in tiers on the wall and use clips to hang your pictures? The wall will still remain visible, you can easily remove one or all of the pictures, and there is a minimum of wall damage if you decide that an inspiration board doesn't meet your esthetic.

To Djluckyonline,

the number and quality of images, work items and samples i place on the inspiration board is not your typical jumbled tacky mess that you see in any office.

i'm talking about an inspiration wall with beautiful images; designer's samples; and color swatches.

regarding the windows, bag on the floor, etc.... i just moved into the office. give me some time. i just wanted to know about the inspiration board.

Djluckyonline-but this person likes his space and was only looking for an answer to this one question. I love the space.

talk about frilly... drapes... no. i have white perforated blinds which i never use as i enjoy the natural light.

love the hook idea for the bag! bag as art.

just buy a corkboard with a silver frame. remove the frame, wrap in fabric, and put back on the frame (which will hold the fabric in)

so far... LOVING the umbra bullet board.

any other ideas?

lol I'm sorry but would you REALLY expect to go to a doctor and tell him, ONLY GIVE ME PENICILIN. I know what's wrong with me and I don't need any of your other help, I just want you to sign the prescription and let me go. No. It's a whole-body experience, otherwise I'd just go OTC and do it myself. If he posted his question, he's slightly subject to other people's opinion. Now I'm not telling him something out of the ordinary like getting rid of three of his walls, I'm just telling him what I think would really enhance his environment, now he can take that help or he can simply ignore it. Seems that he ALREADY had an answer for his dilemma even before he posted his question, but he'd rather step out of the box and ask for a few more ideas, which he's definitely getting. Now step off my case, be original, post YOUR f*cking answers and don't come down on me.

"Now step off my case, be original, post YOUR f*cking answers and don't come down on me."

Don't use AT as a way to air all of your grievances... Someone asked a specific question, not an open one like "What should I do to make my office better?"... People answered correctly, besides you and I can tell from your posts that you are certainly not a professional interior decorator so what right do you have giving unsolicited advice?

Fix yourself before you do anything else- you need some help.

For the OP, sadly, I can't help, but at my work, there is an amazing grey/white fabric stuff that doesn't show pinholes and still looks very sleek and modern.

thank you jgee! i couldn't have put it better myself.

i have always found everyone on the forum to be very polite and i prefer it stay that way.

Like I said: "Now step off my case, be original, post YOUR f*cking answers and don't come down on me"

Like I also said before, I didn't say ANYTHING out of the ordinary or made outrageous requests, just gave MY personal opinion. I'm pretty sure there are many types of fabrics in the world that can do wonders, but once someone says fabric covered foamcore and they don't PAY for a professional designer who WILL charge for his opinions, it doesn't sound like he or she or it is willing to pay for special fabric. Now... you can PAY a professional, but when you're posting in a free self-help design community, you're not going to get a professional's help EVERY time (and if so, please leave me his or her phone number so I can call him or her for all my design questions!)

I can tell you're not a psychologist so what right do you have giving unsolicited advice?

I honestly don't think this is leading to anything, take the advice, or not but leave me out of it.

homasote covered in your choice of fabric or blackboard paint (not sure of the actual term for this but i've seen it and you can write on it with chalk...obviously..). only restriction with the homasote is the panels can be no larger than 4'x8' so you may need more than 1. both solutions are cheap but look very clean/professional.

How about using magnetic paint to make an invisible magnet board? Looks like there are several old threads on the best way to do it...

Another vote for homasote!

If you cover it with fabric (I like unbleached linen, personally, which will read as a soft gray and complement your floors), pinholes won't show. You can use spray mount on the front of the homasote to prevent the fabric from sagging, but you'll still want to stretch it around to the back and staple it in place before hanging.

I saw on HGTV an idea that looked great, functional and nice looking for this purpose. This woman put up a grid of circular magnets on a plain white wall, the base of the magnet attached to the wall and the opposite side of the magnet attached to that. It looked like a minimalist art piece when not in use, but was functional to hold up her inspiration pieces, as well.

My small design office has something like this!

We have several walls that are entirely covered in homasote (painted white to match the other walls) which we use to display our best print pieces and design inspirations. Because the pieces do not get rotated at a rapid pace, the thumbtack holes do not accumulate very quickly, and the boards do not need to be repainted very often. Also, the work displayed is visually arresting enough so that the eye is drawn away from the board's imperfections. It's worked quite well for us- good luck in finding the right solution for your space!

Homasote takes pins easily enough, but doesn't hold them very well.

Forbo makes wonderful bulletin board stuff, halfway between cork and linoleum. It comes in 4' widths, in a nice range of colours and is the standard for architecturally specified tackboards.

My mistake: it also comes in 6' widths.

Staying on topic;

I hate push pin holes - I love magnets.

I've used this interesting idea in conjuction with the magnets; You can purchase magnetic paint at your hardware store (it's been mentioned somewhere here on AT before) you can paint a square (or the entire wall if you like) and then paint over it with regular paint so it's not black, it will still let you put magnets on the wall.

Taking it a step further, this trick from Martha Stewart Living will allow you to make your own color of chalk board paint - super cool. You can then have a magnet inspiration wall that you could put inspiration on and be able to write notes related to the inspiration near it - all taylored to your own creative color shceme.

Just a thought. Beautiful space by the way.

I noticed it didn't reference that link I wanted to share - it's here; http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.3a0656639de62ad593598e10d373a0a0/?vgnextoid=d47f3a6f5c470110VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&autonomy_kw=make%20your%20own%20chalkboard%20paint&rsc=ns2006_m1#

Another vote for homasote. Plus it's "green."

jeffnyc--
Where are you lucky enough to work with offices like that, and are they hiring??? :)

i like the magnetic ideas and would push you towards that, mostly because i also don't like poking holes into paper.

if you're keen on the pushpin... i've never made one so i can't suggest a good backing material, but take whatever boards you choose and cover it in a layer of felt.

the soft fibrous texture would be great to have on a wall and getting it in a white or grey shouldn't be too difficult.

wow! lots of great ideas!

i would love to use the circular magnets to create a grid of white magnets (similar to the design below but, with all the circles touching).

OOOOOO
OOOOOO
OOOOOO
OOOOOO

erin,

do you know where they bought the circular magnets on hgtv?

sweet!

picture these in white? 12" (23" is a bit obnoxious) in a large grid. pretty cool.

thoughts?

http://seejanework.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=81&idproduct=146

Magnets are ok, but you get into trouble trying to hang odd/thick/heavy items with them. Plus, they're pricey. But, if you're into magnets, another option is Walltalkers' magnetic dry-erase wallcoverings. They have a few: <A href="http://www.walltalkers.com/products/mag-rite-ii.asp">plain, lined, gridded.

You can buy the material and glue it to you wall with no frame for a most minimal install.

I would go for a sheet of steel screwed into the wall, painted the same color white to avoid the overly industrial look. Get some magnets and also paint them white. There are some very strong ones for think/heavy items.

What if you used bull dog clips and the wall instead of a board? I think it could look really nice and in keeping with your minimalist style, kind of like a frame-less picture wall. Here is a post on DesignSponge on it:

http://designsponge.blogspot.com/2007/09/clip-wall.html

The only downside is you'd have to put thumbtacks or something directly into the wall.

jeffnyc-

Your office is beautiful. Will you please send us pics when you finish the inspiration board??

dear lori,

thank you and certainly. and i do planned to get a wire management system for under my desk and a few other objects. maybe maxwell will post the finished office.

thank you all for your great ideas!!!!

I want to repeat the magnetic paint idea. I've been planning an inspiration board as well and what I want to do it paint a rectangle of magnetic paint, slightly lighter than the paint that i already have, on the wall. I'm excited that Ill have a built in bulletin board. You can paint it however you like, really (circles, stripes, etc).

If you are looking to purchase a for magnetic surface, both IKEA and The Container Store have an assortment of sizes and colors.

jgee, do you have information on that fabric? That sounds cool!

Have you seen the photographs of Lotta Jansdotter's studio in Blueprint magazine? (I think it's the Sept/Oct issue.) She uses a bunch of clipboards arranged in a grid. The clipboards have a clip that's large enough to hold paper and fabric, but you are limited in overall size (unlike a magnetic board).

If you like the idea of using magnets, I also vote for a sheet of steel attached to the wall. You can paint it, but it might look good left unpainted.

I have painted corkboard white, it takes paint easily. Nothing wrong with the natural color of cork, but if you want an all-white background, you can get the sheets from Forbo, attach them to the wall and paint them the same color as the wall. Voila.

To luckyonline:

Why am I NOT suprised you worked at the GAP?

Meanwhile....

Jeff,

How about some Herman Miller office panels?