I swear to you guys- when I told Tyler I wanted to hang a pegboard over the dresser in the nursery he looked at me like I’d finally lost my baby brain marbles. He doesn’t spend much time on Pinterest except to look at garage things, so I’m sure he was picturing a standard shop pegboard. Trust the vision, babe.”
I usually breakdown the cost of our DIY projects at the end, but I only bought a 4×4 sheet of plywood and a 1 inch diameter dowel totaling a whopping $19.90! We scrounged up some hardware and paint to finish up this DIY!
| S U P P L I E S |
- 4×4 sheet of plywood
- 1 inch diameter dowel
- Primer
- Behr Night Blooming Jasmine
- Measuring tape
- Straight edge (I used a drywall T-square)
- Circular saw (or table saw)
- Miter saw
- Drill
- 1 inch Forstner bit
- 2- 1×3 boards @ 6′
- 1- 1×4 board @ 6′
- Laser level
- Bubble level
- Orbital sander
- Sand paper
- Wood screws
Let’s get to building! I started off by using a drywall T-square to make a grid pattern of 6 inch squares. The intersections marked the spots to drill the peg holes. We cut a foot off of the 4×4 sheet to make a 4×3 rectangle, saving the extra foot of material for shelves.
Using a 1 inch Forstner bit (we have this RYOBI set), I drilled peg holes at the intersections of the grid pattern so that they would be 6 inches apart. This part took some patience and a steady hand. You could certainly use a jig to help keep the holes straight as you drill, but I didn’t want to buy a new tool and I realized the jig I made require like 8 hands to work. Free-handing the peg holes worked fine and was much easier! Tyler and I propped the sheet up on a couple of 2×4’s and took turns drilling the peg holes!
*Important note* Make sure you start drilling on the side you want to be the front of the shelf because the underside, where the bit breaks through, will look a rough and torn up. I messed this up but was planning on painting the board anyway, so it worked out alright!
Next up was to attach a frame to the back of the pegboard to step it out from the wall. This allows for the pegs to sit further back into the board and provide more stability. We used a 1×4 at the top and 1×3’s for the other three sides.
We removed the 1×4 from the top of the frame and hung it on the studs above the dresser.
Since we knew the 1×4 was level, we could just throw on the pegboard and see how it looked! My heart sang!
After taking it back down, it was time to sand! I used our orbital sander to sand the front and the back of the peg holes and smooth out the rough corners.
Next, I taped some sand paper around a giant Sharpie and sanded the inside of the peg holes. Yep, I sure did.
We cut the 1 inch dowel rod into individual pegs, each 6 1/4 inches long. Then, from the leftover plywood sheet, we cut three 5 inch deep shelves: 18 inches long, 24 inches long, and 36 inches long. We sanded the shelves and the ends of the pegs.
Two coats of off-white paint (Night Blooming Jasmine by Behr) really helped tone down the crazy wood-ness happening here. I would normally love this raw look, but it seemed a little too harsh for the nursery.
I’m so excited about this giant pegboard! It’s so playful and different, and even Tyler has come around to the idea that pegboards aren’t just for garage walls ;-).
I can’t wait to share the whole nursery with you guys!!! We’re just waiting on a certain embroidered cheetah (this will only make sense if you’ve seen my IG stories, haha!) EEK!!! Hope you enjoyed this little sneak peak!
While we get ready for the full nursery tour, check out our other nursery related posts…