I promised myself that when we bought a house I'd put up a design wall. Well, we bought a house! My office/sewing room has a big bare wall that looked great for a design wall. We spent weeks discussing and finding the materials to create the design wall I had envisioned.
We eventually bought a 12 foot dowel and hooks and were all set to put it together. Three days later Rob tells me we should ditch my idea and install picture rail molding. I cried. I had it all planned out and knew what I wanted to do and it was a good idea. And now I was to ditch it all? But his idea was better (he was inspired by the picture rail at the Whately barn he saw when we went English dancing). So we hunted down picture rail molding. The second lumberyard I called knew exactly what I was talking about. Turned out to be cheaper than the dowel/hooks combination, went up easily, and looks a whole lot nicer than my original plan.
Picture rail molding, if you're not familiar with it, is wood molding that sits near the top of a wall; it's about two inches tall and rounded at the top. Hooks can be hung from the rounded part; it's used to hang pictures on a wall without nails. You may see it in old houses, galleries or museums (or in our case, the Whately dance barn).
I painted it, installed it, bought some picture hooks and voila!
I'm hanging the curtain clips I bought a year ago from the rail hooks to hold the quilt. I can hang finished quilts on it like I have now, or if I hang batting from it I can use it as a true design wall. What I like best is that it's flexible. It can be the whole size of the wall, or part of it; I will be able to hang finished quilts as well as in-progress projects. I'm very pleased with the results.
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Very nice and a tidy job! You'll enjoy this for years, I betcha :)
ReplyDeleteThat is a great idea! You can use it to display quilts or play around on a design wall. I love it!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea! However, I must admit your gorgeous quilts did distract me from the moulding.
ReplyDeleteI get it for hanging finished work, but if you hang batting it will droop and be a couple inches from the wall, right? When you go to press a block on won't it flex and all the others fall off? It sure is pretty though, and I like that it can blend in when there's no wall up. Just a few questions to know if I want to put this system up...
ReplyDeleteI love it! The quilts look great and it is easy to change quilts whenever you want! It's great!
ReplyDeleteFabulous! I immediately knew what you meant since I have visited many a historic home in the UK and they all hang (hung) pictures this way. Good for you to be open-minded to a different method - turned out to be worth it!
ReplyDeleteThat's a fabulous idea! I love that you can display your gorgeous quilts when you don't need the design wall. Now, how I can I free up a wall?...
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