Picture Wall

[Magnus]

Hello all,

I don't know if this is the right forum... I just take my chances and present my problem ...

On the wall of my son's bedroom we are planning a picture wall of my own developed B&W prints. We have the intention to use the complete wall for this, the size being appr. 20 x 30 ft. The pictures have formats ranging from postcard size up to A3. What is the best way to attach these pictures to the wall without framing them, the underground of the wall is painted plaster

Thanks in advance

 

[rogueish]

If your not framing them, will they be mounted?
Dry mount?
Hinged and matted?
Foamcore board?
Or are you planing on just sticking the RC/FB paper right to the wall?

 

[Magnus]

Yeah, sticking them to the wall, framing would be a possibility but would look to institutional for a little chap. We're talking about kids pictures here, animals, friends, friends mum's etc...... Things he can relate to at his age, and we just continue sticking and sticking, but a little bit of the image quality shouls be left, glue shouldn't come through, no bumps an hobbles etc.

 

[Joe Symchyshyn]

The best way I've seen for a wall like this is rails....

Make some slim shelves that are at different heights and lengths and then you can simply lean the frame from the shelf to the wall.

The shelf needs a lip to hold onto the frame so it doesn't slide off.

A family that I yearly shoot portraits for created a shelf system like this on a concrete wall (thin black shelves at different levels) and it looks spectacular.

joe

 

[blansky]

Since this is sort of a low budget operation that you probably don't want to be too permanent maybe fasten fomecore to the wall or use corkboard and pins. If you don't want pinholes through the edges of the prints then have a piece of tape on the back of the print that sticks out an inch and put the pins through that.

The other way is just pin the pics to the wall and plaster over the holes at a later date when he wants posters of Brittany or her replacement on the walls instead of dads stuff.

Michael

 

[rogueish]

Blansky's cork board and pins is a good one.
Made me think of perhaps those plastic archive photo corners might work too. Slip them on the print and stick them to the wall. You can do any size, any where on the wall. There's a chance they may take some paint off the wall when you remove them. In the mean time, you can always take the photo out (while leaving the photo corners in place) and put in a new photo of the same size.

 

[Joe Symchyshyn]

If it's made to be worth keeping, what about one wall as a cork board...

Some trim 36" from the floor to divide the space and cork above? Too costly?

joe

 

[Clueless]

Blue -"Fun-Tak" is a silly putty-like material that would work for easy, no residue temporary postings. Found in the tape or glue sections of stores. A pinch on each corner does the trick. It can be reused.

 

[rbarker]

Corkboard and pins would be easy, but potentially dangerous for a small child. Assuming you want the wall to be highly informal, and are willing to accept almost any sort of damage to the prints, I think I'd protect the underlying wall with large sheets of foamcore (used like paneling), and then just use spray adhesive on the backs of the prints. Eventually some prints will cover others as the wall fills up, rather like ad walls in large cities.

For a somewhat more formal approach, I'd lean toward flush-mounted prints with velcro attachments - perhaps the self-stick velcro dots that are available.

 

[Phillip P. Dimor]

They sell 'magnetic' paint. It's not really magnetic, it's just an iron-saturated paint of which a magnet will stick to. I've thought about doing that..

Or foamcore/gator board with drywall screws into the wall and then you could just thumbtack/double-sided tape the pictures onto the board.

 

[Magnus]

I have found a solution .... I bought styropore panels which I glued to wall, if carefully done it reall looks straight (my wif did this) I coat this with some pre-adhesive stuff, spray the backs of my pictures with some sort of glue-ish thingie which fits to the coating of the plates, and the photos shouls stick and can be easily removed, and apparantly no harm is done .... we will of finished this by tomorrow, and I wonder. I tried one plate and it does look pretty good, as far as this sort of presentation can look good, ....

 

[Bob F.]

You probably thought of it, but just in case, make sure those tiles are fireproofed. Plain expanded polystyrene burns readily and gives off carcinogenic fumes as it does so: not nice stuff!

The magnetic paint is a good Idea, I meant to use that myself in the darkroom to cover the entire wall behind the enlarger to hold notes etc - must remember to get some this weekend...

Cheers, Bob.