Monday, June 4, 2012

A Design Wall in The Clubhouse!

Design Wall crafts were conquered at last today, and I am thrilled!
8'x8' of Design Wall Magic!

Our generous neighbors let us borrow their truck so Mr. Pins and I could fetch two 4'x8' foam insulation boards from the big box home improvement store over the weekend, and I finally had time to make it all happen today. I was most inspired by the tutorial over at Cut to Pieces.


I snagged a package of King Size 120"x120" cheap, high loft poly batting on sale at JoAnn months ago for this project.

I got the thickest boards they had. They measure under an inch thick and were less than $14 each.

I won't try to improve on the Cut to Pieces tutorial, but here are tips from my experience:
- Folding only 3" of batting onto the back was sufficient. 
- My regular desk stapler could successfully attach one layer of batting to the boards, so I didn't need a heavy duty staple gun.
- I stapled near the edge of the batting on the back and then put duct tape over the staples sealing the edge of the batting on the back of the boards like Elizabeth did over at Oh, Fransson!
- I had two rolls of duct tape in the house, and the Duck Tape brand was much better quality than the Tyco Adhesives Nashua brand. The Duck Tape tore and handled more easily.


- I experienced a math fail when determining the location for my power outlet cutout. I patched the hole in the foam with a scrap from the cutout and duct taped it to the front of my board. The duct tape shows through the batting, so I wish I'd used clear packing tape. If OCD tendencies take over, I suppose I could attach some sort of white fabric around the outlet hole to make the duct tape look less ugly. 


- I used six 3M picture hanger tabs to hang the boards on our textured walls. They function like hook and loop. I'm not convinced this will be sufficient, but the wall hasn't come crashing down yet. If you're trying to avoid putting holes in your wall, you can give this a go.
- It took me four hours to do this project by myself.


I'm really happy to have a Design Wall of my very own, now. I won't have to lay everything out on the floor. Mr. Pins says he's glad I won't be talking about it all the time anymore. Ha!

I'd love to hear about your Design Wall experience :-)

Happy Crafting!

6 comments:

  1. It looks fantastic! I love the hook solution for attaching it to the wall.

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  2. Congrats, it looks awesome! I haven't managed a design wall yet but I'm really hoping to figure one out next time I redesign my sewing room. My room has some major disadvantages, though - sloping attic ceilings, a half hearted bathroom reno taking up the only full wall - that make it tricky.

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  3. My design wall was a piece of batting stapled to the wall! Not at all pretty, but functional. I'll be putting up a real one in my new house, so thanks for the tips on the staples & tape!

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  4. this looks awesome! i wish i had space for a full-time design wall. i tape a tablecloth up over the door to my apartment, and it's kind of a pain to do laundry when i'm using it!

    however, you have TOTALLY inspired me for an art piece i'm planning. i need a way to allow people to poke pins into the piece, while still protecting the wall of the gallery, and the foam looks perfect. thank you SO MUCH! i've totally been obsessing about this too.

    as for the 3m hooks, i've had a pretty good experience with them. i used them to hang a framed poster on my fridge (using a lightweight frame from ikea, with no glass), so it gets opened and closed all the time. in the last few months the frame has started falling every once in awhile, but it lasted a good year and a half before that started happening. given that the foam is so light and the wall won't be moving, you shouldn't have any problem with it. have fun playing with your design wall!

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  5. Hmm jealous now!!
    I've never really thought a design wall was necessary, but yours looks great!

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  6. Exciting - which I had room for one. I LOVE the "Flower" blocks - maybe one day I will be proficient enough to do blocks like this. Right now I am still working with squares :)

    PS I came over from the Sew Happy Geek Linky Party. And I am now following your blog.

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