Handy message board

If you need a place to leave notes for your family-or reminders to yourself-this message board will do the trick. It's a nice project to hang near your front door or in the kitchen. The writing surface is whiteboard, which wipes clean when you write on it with dry-erase markers. My design also includes pegs for hanging keys on the bottom, and a peg for a calendar on top if you'd rather write on that than the whiteboard.

Get started by cutting the back piece 7 3/4" wide and 24" long with a handsaw or tablesaw. Give it a good sanding all over with 120-, then 180-grit paper. Next, measure five inches down from the top end of the front face and mark a pivot point right in the centre. You'll also need to mark another pivot point 14" down from the first one. This second mark also needs to be centred.

You'll use both of these marks with a compass, so double-check your measurements before setting your compass to a 4 1/2" radius. Draw an arc from both points, forming the top and bottom curves of the back piece. The total length of this part should be 23" when everything is right.