We have several homemade bulletin boards in our home.  One wall of our classroom has a 4’X8’ board we use for displays, and the kids each have their own 15”X 4’ boards above their desks.  My daughter has a matching fabric covered one in her bedroom. These are simple to make and fairly inexpensive.

You will need:

1 piece of foam board (insulation board for the outside of your house) from home improvement center (@$8 for a 4’X8’ sheet)

3 yards felt in color choice (@ $3-$5 yard) (other fabric can be used, but we prefer felt)

Staple gun with ¾ staples

To make the large board, lay the felt on a flat surface, making sure to smooth out any wrinkles.  Place the foam board on top of the felt, centering as much as possible.  Pull the felt over the edges and staple every 2” or so to secure, pulling tight as you go around.  We wrap the felt around the board like wrapping a gift, folding the ends in to create tight corners.   That’s all there is to it.  We hang these on the wall with screws.  Foam board is easy to cut with a razor and you can make any size you wish.  We use straight pins to hang things on them because they make smaller holes. 

(It was hard to get a good picture because the room is so narrow, but you get the general idea of what the larger and smaller boards look like.)