Thursday, August 04, 2011

Hanging the Design Wall

I left my house super early to do my shopping at Lowe's before my knitting group started. I live an hour away and the time change to Eastern makes me do these things.
These styrofoam panels were my only choice and I was way disappointed that my nice blue dense styrofoam wasn't available at this Lowe's. I am seriously considering heading up to the other nearby (1 hour also) Lowe's to see if they have what I really want.




See these that I used for my dye platters? They were 2" thick but I only need 1/2" thick, so therein lies the dilemma.
Anyway, I have what I have at the moment, so this is what I plan to do.







At Lowe's I was only able to find the hooks that hold five pounds of weight. I wanted the 8 pounders.

 Some of them were on sale, so I felt I could buy all that they had, and return whatever I didn't use. Later I found them cheaper at Wal-Mart, but I couldn't get all that I might need, so I am OK with these. Nice of you guys to tell me about the coupon on www.command.com but I was already gone by the time you commented.



I considered that the weight of a heavy quilt on this wall would too much for these hooks so I came up with Plan B. This will work for me, because of my existing hanging system.
Note: I am not going to put nails or anchors in my wall.

The Duck tape and washers are my ace in the hole for HANGING the boards.
Stay with me...










Just to test the size of these hooks, I slid one over the edge of the 1/2" board. Works...!

The paper and foil sides of these boards must be covered and I wanted cotton batting in one piece to do the job.

Wal-mart now carries batting and the first store I visited had no queen/king size batts. Darn. But they did have full size 80/20 batts reduced from $13 to $5, so I got all of them.They are 81x96" vs the Queens which are 110x110". The next Walmart I stopped at had the queen size and I got two of those for the two sets of design walls I plan to mount.







Here's my hanging system. (Thanks for sticking with me on this long and involved story).  I had my contractor slide in the rail (Rubbermaid closet stuff, also from Lowe's) under the crown molding, knowing I wanted to be able to hang lots of stuff in my studio, and not have holes in the wall.
I should also mention that my walls have texture sprayed on them which makes me a bit squeamish about the stickability of the hooks I plan to use.  Not to worry though, since they will be merely stabilizing the panels, as I plan to hang them with my duct tape and washers idea.
Here's the plan, see diagrams below. Tape the edges all around with Duck tape, and then add another two layers at the top as in this picture, inserting the washers between the two layers. Then I will cut an opening and thread my heavy nylon fishline through and hang the panels.
Anchor the panels with the Command hooks is next and then pin on the batting and I am done.

Does this seem like a lot of work to you? It does to me. But then when I am done I will have two Jim Dandy design walls and renewed vigor (as the Kennedys used to say) for making lots more pieced quilts. Did you know that when I fused a quilt, I didn't use a design wall and just composed everything flat on my work surface...Imagine that.



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11 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:31 AM

    What time did you leave for knitting..... you went to more stores than I do in three shoppings outings... I don't think you really want the foil covered whatever. The blue panels are just perfect for design walls. Fact is sometimes you are going to stick a pin in the "wall" to hold something that just is a tad heavy and the foil then will be pierced and the poor pin will be duller..... the blue stuff .... hang in there ...when it is finished it will be wonderful.

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  2. I love it! And I love the way your mind works! If you can't get what you came for... find another way! I can't wait to see the finished product being put to use!

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  3. Brilliant, can't wait to see your first new quilt on your new design wall.

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  4. Wow what a story! I actually did use the silver-y stuff for my wall. I've had it up for a long time, 12-15 years? We just hammered it to the wall, through the sheets. Then I covered the sheets with gray felt. I love that the felt will let me "stick" stuff to it. Or, I just pin - and I use a separate set of pins, just for the design wall (some old plastic head ones, no good for the ironing board area as they will melt). I love the gray felt as it is neutral when designing on it. Missed your dawgs today! :)

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  5. Mel that is so involved. I simply got a length of wood, not as thick as a 2 x 4 and had it cut as long as the design wall I waant is wide, put a screw eye in each end, put a nail in the wall at an angle that the screw eye slipped onto, like making a stick for a quilt to hang on. Covered each section of the foam boards with batting or felt, in my case 2 inch thick blue stuffwhich I love. Then I ran a bead of E6000 along the stick and stuck the foam core to the stick. I have done this for installing design walls in the last four places I have lived. Easy to remove, leaves nothing more than two nail holes behind when it time to take it down

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  6. Anonymous9:47 AM

    What--no dawgs! I'm going through withdrawl.

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  7. I love your solutions and that you share them. You prove my theory that creativity is problem solving. It is well known that you are creative and we see it applied here to your design wall.

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  8. I tried to buy the pink or blue sheets of insulation in Florida and they looked at me like I was nuts! (Afterall - I AM a snowbird down there!) They claimed they didn't need it - wait - don't they try to keep the summer heat OUT? I guess it's a "northern" thing!! Wonder if they'll "special order" it from their warehouse? Best of luck!!

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  9. Am a little confused - how do the 3M hooks hold the board when they are up side down like your one photo with it holding the silver stuff?

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  10. Oh my goodness! I want to do this! Thank you for the instructions. Also you have a wonderful picture of dyed fabric ( I'm into dying fabric these days ) on your shelves, would you mind telling how you dyed that?
    Thank You ~
    sunluvr5@cox.net

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  11. Anonymous11:34 PM

    i'm in the process of doing this myself, so i really like your ideas and what you've done.

    i'm also not clear on where and how you used the 3m hooks??? bit slow on the uptake for this part of your project.

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Hello,
So nice of you to drop by. I love your comments, and if you would really like a reply, please email me at fibermania at g mail dot com