Oh man you guys. My house is a living construction site right now, and I am finding it SO hard to get in my office and show up for work! My brain is just buzzing with reno ideas and decisions to make! Plus, I have a giant stack of kitchen cabinets I need to assemble, lol. So of course your blog post today is house-related because that is all my brain has the space for right now! I’m bringing you a SUPER easy (like, if you can use a drill, you got this) DIY Art display mount tutorial, in case you’re looking for a way to organize your creative clutter. (see my reel below for what we are talking about today!)
I mean, she is a beaut, right?
Unrelated but related story, growing up my room was always a MESS. Like an actual mess in all caps. You could rarely see the floor. My Dad used to always say to me, “you are not messy Megan, you are creative (but please, clean this up)” And that used to make me feel just plain good about myself. As an adult I work daily to try and keep my physical and brain space organized after a childhood of creative messiness, so I am excited to share a few ways I honor my own daughter’s creativity while keeping the creative clutter to a minimum!
If you follow me on instagram you saw my video tip to use sketchbooks as a way to cut creative clutter. there is a small note in that reel about being able to easily tear out the pieces you want to display, and this is the perfect place to put them! So, let me show you how it is done!
Supplies for your DIY Kids Art Display Wall
Can’t start this without going over supplies, right? This project should cost you less than $20 depending on how big your system will be. There are Amazon affiliate links below, so the only things you should need to make a trip out for are the pieces of lumber and maybe spray paint! BUT did you know you can just doa curbside pickup order from Lowes and Homedepot if going in intimidates you?
- 1x2x8 foot board
- 1/2″ adhesive magnet strips (Amazon affiliate link)
- 1/2″ Aluminum flats (i bought them in 3ft chunks and cut some so I didn’t have huge pieces to pull off and on)
- Matte black spray paint (Amazon affiliate link)
- Drill + 2.5″ wood screws
- (optional) nail gun with brads/nails
- (optional) extra adhesive like gorilla glue for magnet strips
Okay those two optional things are kind of not optional depending on your magnetic strips. I am finding that the adhesive on mine is terrible. I needed the extra reinforcement to both the wood piece and the aluminum flat. If you do not have a nail gun, you can just hammer nails into it or use the extra adhesive. I also adhered the magnet strips to aluminum flats.
Prep work
The first thing to do is measure your wall and determine how big you want your system to be, and how high. I wanted mine to stretch all the way across and have two rows. I also wanted one of the rows to be at or near my daughters eye level. It is in her playroom and featuring her work, afterall. You might want more or less.
With that measurement in mind, check your aluminum stirps and do some chopping to make them fit that length. They cut easily with a chop/miter saw. Or you can cut them by hand with a saw-saw if you’re feeling extra. lol. Then spray paint them black and let them dry while you do the rest of the prep work.
Next use a stud finder or the old nail-and-hammer- trick to mark the studs along your wall. Studs are usually 16″ apart which may help you find them quicker once you have one (unless you’re in my kooky house where nothing is standardized).
Mounting the display wall
Okay literally, the math on that is the hardest part of this install. Now grab your wooden board and lay it on your wall with a level. Take your drill and screws and screw right through the board into where you marked stud locations. This is a light piece and will only hold paper, so if you can find at least two studs, that’s pretty darn good. If not, just use some wall anchors! Try to screw each at the same height, because you will use your magnetic strip to hide the screws later!
Finishing your DIY Art Display System
All that is left is applying your magnetic tape. Now, I won’t even lie to you guys, I thought my aluminum would magnetize to my magnets. 🤣 I was thinking “oooh, a nice lightweight metal, that will stick to the magnet stip perfectly!” while at Lowe’s. But apparently I am dumb because that is obviously not what happened. So if you get the aluminum, you will need a strip across the board as well as across each painted aluminum flat.
Use the strip to dover your screw heads, reinforcing with either glue on the backs or a nail gun. Trust me on that. It looks like it will stick on its own but in like 10 minutes it will be peeling off your wall lol. Same for the aluminum flats. That sticks a little better but over time I am finding they need to be reinforced.
All that is left to do now is put your artwork between the two magnetic strips for a seamless and chic display! I am also going to eventually add some picture lights like these (affiliate link) to make it real fancy and museum-like!
More art ed at home ideas
If you are thinking YES PLEASE MA’AM then please head to the rest of my blog and see more tips like this! Help my put my art teacher background to good use and utilize all the free resources on my blog, please! 🥰