Industrial Grate Memo Board for Kid's Room

I know not everyone is a fan of the rusty industrial look when it comes to decorating. Heck, even I can only stand it in small doses, so it was no surprise when I came home from a market not too long ago with this old, grungy metal grate that my hubby was perplexed on why I actually spent money on a piece of "garbage".

It wasn't pretty, I'll give him that, but it had this great, worn blue color to it and it kept catching my eye every time I walked by this vendor's tent. I knew I could repurpose it and unlike most of my decor purchases, I knew exactly what I would do with it and where I wanted to put it!

I pictured it in Little B's bedroom as a cute industrial grate memo board!
It's part fun and part rough, and a little dirty; pretty much similar to how you would describe a boy! I think that's why I was so attracted to it and wanted it for his room.

Industrial Grate Memo Board

Anyone who has kids, you know preschoolers collect and refuse to throw away random things. Old, worn out stickers, torn birthday cards, wings from a dead bug (speaking from experience on this one); I wanted him to have a space to display some of these things (okay, maybe not the dead bug wings) in an organized way instead of being arbitrarily scattered through out our home.

To get the memo board started, I adorned it with some fun things I recently picked up at one of my favorite antique stores. Last time I visited they had this little set-up in the back of the shop with a general store feel to it. It was filled with an assortment of old time delights like vintage flashcards and show ribbons.

I couldn't pass up the animal sight word cards, they're so up B's alley! He loves anything to do with animals, especially predatory ones. Must be a boy thing! I just hole punched the corner of the cards and strung them on some twine and hung them on the grate.

The little license plate and award ribbons were also from there. The "Play" letters I picked up from Michael's a long time ago and stuck them to the grate with some scrapbook glue dots. Round magnets on the metal grate would obviously work better on holding things up, but I didn't have any on hand at the moment. As time goes on I look forward to seeing what kinds of things B would like to add to it!

I also plan on hanging the memo board on the wall eventually, rusty metal isn't exactly something I want the kid playing it! I'm currently storing it in our guest bedroom as I slowly work on changing out some of  B's wall decor, so once I figure out the rest of the decor plans, I'll bring it back into the room and hang it up.

So that's the tale of this piece of garbage!
Like I said, I know not everyone loves old, rusty things but I think this turned out grate!
Haha...see what I did there? Aww, I'm here all night folks.