Cornice Board on the Cheap (with tutorial)

After spending far too much on paint and supplies, and knowing that more expenses were yet to come, I didn't want to spend much on window coverings for the office. I had originally hoped for a sort of midcentury modern vibe, a la Mad Men, so I knew that I wanted the most simple and clean cover for that ugly window situation that I could find.

Given that I was trying to do this on a budget, and I have an 8ft window and a 6ft car, my cornice board dreams seemed somewhat unattainable. This probably explains the ugly floral swag situation that came with the office. But then, when has unattainable ever stopped me?

While generally Pinterest has been of exactly zero help on this project, because apparently it's unusual to be given full creative reign to decorate your own workspace and most people on Pinterest don't have offices, I was able to find some help from Pinterest on a cornice board. This post at Rappsody in Rooms walks through the process of making a foam core cornice. The benefits of foam core? It's cheap, it comes in 30 inch spans and can fit in a Toyota Echo, and it's light enough that I figured it would be really easy to hang on a concrete block wall (spoiler alert, it wasn't). 

So, I bought three sheets of foam core and chopped it up into 10 inch wide lengths. To fit my 8 ft window, ended up with four 30"x 10" spans from 2 sheets, and chopped the last sheet into three 20" x 10" spans that I used for reinforcing the joints. From the extra at the ends of the longer spans, I chopped three 3" by 10" strips that I used to make my side pieces. 

Because I was working with an 8ft span instead of the much smaller windows that most crafters have taken on with foam core I decided to use multiple layers to reinforce the joints. 

The other blogs do a pretty good job explaining how to reinforce the corners to create the "sides" of the cornice, but I tried to improve on them by adding a triangle of foam core to the top and bottom at each corner. Basically, I made two 3" x 3" squares out of one of the strips I mentioned earlier, cut each on the diagonal, and taped them into the inner corners where the front met the sides of the cornice. I distinctly remember taking a photo of this, but alas, it doesn't seem to exist. 

Once I had my 8' span with 3" sides attached, I covered it in 1/2 yard of 90" wide batting from end to end and attached the batting with staples. To create cleaner lines, I only ran the batting as far as the front edge of the cornice, not around the corners. This is the back of the cornice where I stapled the batting on. 

The next layer was orange quilting cotton I found on sale at Joanns. It was nothing fancy, and there wan't quite enough so I had to put in a couple of seams on the sides, but it only cost about $8 for 2 1/2 yards of 44" wide fabric. I had to cut it in half to lengthen each side, so if you're okay with seams, you can get way with 1/2 as much fabric as you need. The 22" width of 44" wide cotton was a perfect fit. If you're counting, we're now up to about $15 in materials.

Folding in the corners neatly was the hardest part, so I sort of did it like wrapping a present. First I folded in the corners (see bottom left) and stapled, then I folded down the long edge (see top) and stapled, then I folded under the extra (see bottom right) and stapled some more. I'll admit, this is where the staples began to fail me a bit and just fall out. So, I just added more.

Next, I needed to come up with a way to hang this sucker. Having worked with foam core before on the headboard and the jewelry hanger before that, I know that a picture hook will not do the job. It will fall off the same way that a staple will fall out. So, I went back to Joanns and bought some upholstery screws for holding doilies on your sofa arms (don't ask how I know this) and used those to attach some ribbon I had kicking around to the back of the board. I used 7 inch lengths of 3/4" satin ribbon and spaced them out with one at each end at one at the middle. 

I'll have you know at this point I was really quite pleased with myself. I had made a cornice for under $20 and it looked damn good. But, you might notice, I hadn't yet hung it to the wall. Other bloggers had used curtain rods to hang their cornices, but I had nothing to attach a curtain rod to...  I had a small header board someone used to hang mini blinds, and a whole lot of concrete.

My first attempt was to put three screws in the header board, but the screws I had weren't long enough. In fact, I couldn't find any screws in Marin County long enough to properly hold my cornice. I put nice aesthetic 3" sides on it, and the head of a screw isn't exactly the best thing to hold a piece of satin ribbon in place. I should note that my dad saw the project at this phase as I asked him to sift through his garage for the longest screws he could find and he said, "You need cuphooks, Veronica." I didn't believe him. 

So, back to the dollar store I went where I found these cheap "universal tool hangers" which I was sure would do the trick (always have a plan B, right?) I brought them back to the office and found that they couldn't fit flush against the header board because of the mini blinds (don't even get me started on how I feel about mini blinds). So, I used heavy duty mounting tape that I already had sitting around. I mounted the three hooks in the right spots to hold the ribbon, hung the cornice, and sat back, pleased with myself. 

This solution, as you might imagine, lasted about 20 minutes before the cornice came crashing to the floor. So, it was onto Plan C... Google, when asked, informed me that there is no good way to glue metal on concrete and that I shouldn't even try. But that sounds like the advice of a quitter, right? Instead I listened to the advice of some shmuck on a DIY board who suggested Liquid Nails. I've used it before; it's amazing stuff. I was sure it would work!

So, I cleaned the wall, I cleaned the mounting tape off the hooks, and I applied a generous coat of Liquid Nails. I put a little scotch tape up to hold the hook in place while it dried, and I left it alone for a full 48 hours. The tube says 24 hours to cure, but I wasn't taking any chances. On Monday I returned to work, I hung my cornice. I worked for 4 hours, and I went home. That night, I received this email from our administrative coordinator. 

When I got back to the office I found that the glue had never fully dried and 2 of my three hooks had come down. Not ready to give up on this, my $3 plan, I dutifully re-glued them and decided that I just hadn't given them enough time to cure. 

I gave the glue the rest of the week, then came in on Friday morning to give the hook that had survived the fall a stress test: one little tug before even considering hanging the valance on it. After a full week to cure it came off in my hand, a gooey wet mess. Apparently Liquid Nails doesn't dry between concrete and metal. Who knew?

Defeated, I got on Amazon. I ordered a $5 set of 2 inch cup hooks. I waited 2 days for them to show up in my mailbox, and I hand screwed them in to the holes left behind from the screws I used in the first place. 

Score another one for dear old Dad.