Design Wall Tutorial

This is my first real attempt at a tutorial.

I have been planning to make a design wall since I restructured my sewing room last fall. 

But I hadn't.

Until today.

 Inspired by the May for Me celebration, I decided to give it a shot. 

 

Here are the supplies I used:

-Two 2 ft x 4 ft foam insulation panels (these are about 1inch thick and look like sheets of styrofoam)

-Photo spray mount adhesive

-Furniture tacks (like thumb tacks, but a bit longer)

-Gorilla tape (or duct tape)

-Four pieces of batting, about 28 x 52 inches

-A plastic tarp to protect work surfaces from the adhesive

 

Here is what I did (outdoors, because of spray fumes!):

Took a panel of the insulation (the side with printing is the back)

 Sprayed the entire surface of the front (non-printed) side of the panel with the adhesive

Centered the first layer of batting and smoothed out from center, stretching slightly

 

Centered the second layer of batting (or poly fleece, in my case) over the first layer

Folded half of it back and sprayed the exposed first layer of batting

Smoothed the folded half out over the sprayed first layer, stretching slightly

Repeated for the second half of the second layer of batting

 

Smoothed both layers of batting over the edges

 

Ready for finishing the back

 

Flipped the panel over on its front

Trimmed corners on the diagonal, about an inch away from the panel

(Hooboy! When did I get THOSE hands!??)

 

Pulled both thicknesses of batting toward the back and trimmed, leaving about 1 inch to adhere to the back

 

 Sprayed the adhesive close to the panel around the edges

Starting with the corners, pulled the batting diagonal cut over the corner and adhered

 

 The corner looked like this after the sides were glued down

 The back, all glued down

 Took the Gorilla tape and ran it around the edges to make sure the batting stayed in place

 The finished back

Finished the panel by pushing furniture tacks in around all edges

(the package of tacks are hanging on the front panel...forgot to remove them for the picture)

ONE DONE, ONE TO GO!

So, go back to the top and repeat the steps if making another one!

Here are the two panels hanging on the wall in my little sewing room, with a few of my unfinished projects already in place, reminding me that they want to be finished.

Well, at least the design wall is done...

One last note:  hubby nailed a few finishing nails (the kind with no flat head on them) into the wall studs and we just pushed the panels onto the nails

If I need more stability, I'll just use that picture-hanger goo on the back of the panels

Long post, but it was fun!

Happy Days,

Gramma Sheri