DIY Printer stand and bulletin board

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 Woah baby, is it back to school time already?! 

The boys don’t head back to school for another few weeks, but school supply shopping has already started, and I’ve been planning and preparing for the first few weeks of school. Now that the boys are getting older they often have to do homework online, but unfortunately they don’t have a system in place for submitting their homework online, so this means lots and lots of printing happens in the Kirk house. The opportunity to partner with HP Printers came at the perfect time, and since I just revamped my home office I thought this tutorial was quite fitting!

Anyone can open a box and stick a printer on their desk – not that there’s anything wrong with that – but if you’ve been reading my blog for a while you’ll know I have a thing for DIY projects, enter: the DIY printer stand and bulletin board!

Like I said, I just recently revamped my home office to make it more spacious and to create a larger work area. I achieved this by turning my desk away from the wall, and adding a row of filing cabinets to form an L shape. Now my desk faces into the kitchen (so I can toddler watch while I work) and I have a large work space to pack + ship all your Mom Life Must Haves 😉 You know, when baby Vinnie hasn’t completely taken over my workspace…

I decided to create a DIY printer stand and bulletin board because in my office maximizing space, staying organized, and having a pretty little workspace are all super important to me. I ran into Wal-Mart soooo excited to pick up my new HP Deskjet 3752 (dreaming about all the money I will save on ink cartridges from now on)

I also picked up a few other items to create the printer stand, this whole project cost under $10 to complete!

Here’s what you need:

• A piece of wood (nothing special because you’re covering it anyway, cut to size depending on your needs. I used an extra piece of plywood we had from previous projects and had Mr. Kirk cut it to 16″x26″ size)
• Contact paper
• Two small wooden crates 
• Scissors
• A measuring tape
• A printer (of course!)
• Optional: Other items to add to your bulletin board such as thumbtacks, a dry erase board, washi tape etc. 

Here’s what you do…

1. Measure and cut your board to size. This will depend on your needs, I wanted a tall and skinny bulletin board and I wanted the contact paper to cover it completely without having to do two layers. My board was cut to 16″ x 26″
2. Cover your board with contact paper. The best thing about contact paper is that it’s meant to stick to wood! Measure up the size you’ll need and then peel + stick! I brought mine around the back of the board so all the edges would be covered. 
3. Measure the inside of your wooden crates. Measurements will vary here depending on the size crates you choose, mine are 6″ tall.
4. Cover the inside of your crates with contact paper. Cut the paper based upon the measurements above. Peel and stick, easy peasy! I love doing this because it looks that much cuter! Here they are before I put them together inside:

After I got all my pieces decorated I unpacked the printer and was pleasantly surprised by how small it was, only about as tall as my phone! This HP Deskjet truly is the tiny all-in-one that packs a punch. With our old printer, I had to carry my laptop over and plug it in to print anything but now – OMG – wireless?!  I can print, scan and copy from virtually any mobile device, including my phone and laptop, and no more worrying about the kids carrying my laptop around to print their homework. Plus, now we can print 2.5x as many pages with the HP high-yield ink cartridges.

 The HP is also getting bonus points for looking so sleek, and clean. I mean come on… 

How cute is that? It’s the perfect little spot and it’s functional, AND organized. 

The contact paper makes peeling and sticking new items up super easy, and because we used wood, thumbtacks and pins will hold just about anything. I added a little ‘notes’ board at the top, a few photos that I printed and some of my favorite inspirational Buddha Doodles cards with some washi tape (I like to pick a new one to hang up every couple of days!) You can really make this your own – and it’s so simple and inexpensive to do!

Because I work from home my space has to be functional. I need lots of room and even more inspiration. I love this fun + bright little spot I have now!

If you’re looking to save space, AND save money without compromising quality, you have to check out the HP Deskjet 3752. Click here to learn more about what you can create with HP!

I have some fun back-to-school printables coming later in the week, make sure you’re following me on Instagram and Pinterest so you don’t miss them!