corkboard fail

I have been working on some home improvement projects but don't really have much to show for it. 

My bulletin board area is kind of a disorganized mess.  I've got school stuff, design stuff, medicine stuff, baby announcements, holiday cards, interesting things I want to look at later....all crammed on the same 2x3 board.  I'd really like to have separate boards for separate topics, but the space to hang this is not very big. 

My idea was to do four 12x12 inch corkboards wrapped in pretty fabric, inside white frames.  Easy, right? 

Not really.  I looked for white 12x12 frames for weeks, but couldn't find any at a price point I wanted to pay (I need four of them).  Finally, I bought some red 12x12 frames (that were wrapped in plastic) and figured I would spray paint them white.

Unfortunately, these are the flimsiest, skinniest, most plasticky frames ever.  They barely hold in the glass and backing.  If you put in the backing in without the glass, it pops through the frame (see the bottom left corner of the picture below).

Arg. I thought ok, maybe it will hold up when it is covered with a layer of corkboard and fabric.

I attempted to spray paint the frames, but the paint literally ran right off the plastic, and the white is not going to cover the red without fourteen coats.  Since I am spraypainting inside in my basement, hardly a well-ventilated area, this is not a great plan.

I pulled out some oil-based Killz primer.  Since, you know, I'd like to kill the three brain cells I have left after spraypainting indoors.  It bubbled, it slid off the frame, its dried with cracks and streaks.

 As I stood in the basement, contemplating this crap, the Mister came in and surveyed the mess.  "Hmm...that looks....."  Like shit, I said.  "Well, that's one way of putting it" said the ever-polite Mister. 

Back to square one.