Oh How I Love My New Design Wall!

I loves me a good design wall.  They are so awesome for:

• Looking at your projects from afar to get some perspective
• Letting you change up elements in your project easily and quickly just by moving and 'sticking' to the flannel
• Keeping your projects off of the dirty floor or cluttering up your tables

I did have a large camel colored flannel covered 'inspiration board' in my studio.  Problem?  It was behind a desk (i.e.- hard to get to) and kind of small.

When I heard that Kaffe Fassett and company had released a new grey/white grid design wall fabric, I decided right then and there my design wall needed a makeover!

Aside from the aforementioned pros of a design wall, this flannel is:

• Neutral grey so as not to distract from your project pieces
• Has a grid so you can keep your stuff lined up properly (really genius I think!)

Wanna make your own like this one?

Check it!  Mine is a whopper 78" x 94", but  you can make yours any size you like!

My helper Liam showing how much we love the new design wall!

Materials:

• Foil backed insulation board (@ ½" thick)
• Thin polyester batting or fleece
• Duct tape- lots!
• Design wall flannel (available at www.gloriouscolor.com)  Flannel should be 2"+ larger  than the insulation board on all sides.
• "L" screws or nails

1.  First, cut the insulation board to size.  The standard size of the boards are 4' by 8'.  Cut them using a box cutter and a metal ruler.  If you'd like your design board to be bigger, simply tape 2 or more boards together with duct tape (both sides.)  Tape down the seam, then add a few X's of tape for added stability.

This is the brand I used, available at Home Depot and Lowe's here in the US.

2.  Piece flannel if necessary.  To do ensure the grids line up: trim flannel 1 1/4" from vertical lines closest to your seam line on your cut-to -length panels.  Pin at grid intersection right on the white lines.  Join with a ¼" seam.  Press seams open.  The resulting join will produce grid squares that are just like the printed 2" squares.  As long as I had a grid to work with, I wanted to keep it neat :)

So the white lines almost line up properly… Don't be judge-y :)

3.  Lay your batting out on the floor.  Smooth out wrinkles.  Place insulation board on top.  Trim batting to 2" bigger all around.  To reduce bulk at corners, trim a 2" x 2"square of batting from each corner.

4.  One side at a time, duct tape edges of batting to back of board. (An extra pair of hands really helps here!)  Stretch the batting tightly before taping second and fourth sides.

5.  Turn board batting side up.  Lay flannel right side up on board.  Use straight pins to pin flannel to side of board, lining up flannel grid with board as you go. (If you are using solid flannel, you can skip this step.)  Pin opposite side, stretching flannel.  Repeat for remaining 2 sides.  Trim excess flannel  2" larger all around.

Pinning is essential to keeping grid straight before taping to back of board :)

6.  Carefully flip assembly wrong side up.  Fold each corner in on the diagonal.  Affix with small pieces of tape.  Working one side at a time, duct tape edges down to insulation board.

When taping is complete, remove all pins.

7.  Mount board to wall with L shaped screws or nails. (Use screws and mollies if you are mounting onto drywall, nails for paneling or wood.)  A helper is a must for this step :)

We have drywall in this room, so I used mollies to anchor the "L" screws.  I used a total of 3 to anchor the bottom of this 91" wide board.

At the top of the board, we put one in each corner to anchor board.

Tip, I mounted mine about 12" from the floor.  Experience has taught me that feet and cats tend to knock off any pieces of fabric low to the ground. 

Et voila!  Can't wait to mess up my pristine design wall with lots 'o projects!!