Making a design wall

I love my design wall.  My dad built mine, and although I can’t tell you exactly step by step how he made it, I can tell you the materials we used and the basics of the construction.

I began by searching online for automotive headliner – thanks to watching an episode of Quilt in a Day with Eleanor Burns way back when.  I didn’t remember everything in that show about how she made her design wall, but I did remember the tip about using automotive headliner.  Brilliant!  This makes the surface of the design wall.  It’s the same fabric that covers the inside roof of a car, and it’s amazing. Cotton adheres to it so beautifully that it’s difficult to believe it was created for another purpose!  I shopped for a neutral color in the greatest width I could find and came up with a light gray color and that came 60" wide.   I bought a couple of yards so I could get a nice big square without piecing it.  The fabric is bonded to a thin, flexible foam and is delivered on a large roll.  Aside from unrolling it to get it flat, no other preparation is needed.  The company I bought from no longer sells headliner in 60" widths (only 54"), I checked.  This web site, StockInteriors.com, does. 

My dad went to Menards and bought lumber (2×2′s – which are actually 1 1/2" thick) for a lightweight support frame and large section of 1 1/2" thick styrofoam board.  He constructed the wooden frame of 2×2′s around the foam board, nailing the wood together and also nailing the frame to the foam board.  He then stretched the headliner around all sides of the frame to the back and with a staple gun secured it in place.  He didn’t use any kind of adhesive between the headliner and foam board, just pulled it very tightly.  He was worried that it might sag over time, but it’s been over a year and a half of HEAVY use, and it looks just as great as it did on day one with no signs of sagging.

I told Dad where I wanted the design wall in my sewing room knowing it would be a permanent fixture and he drilled 4 screws (2 along the top and 2 along the bottom) from the front of the design wall through the frame and into the wall studs.  He even bought nifty black screw covers (technical name?) for a nice clean, finished look.

This design wall is one of the best tools I have in my quilting room.  I use it so much.  When I’m arranging blocks for a quilt, I’ll place them on the design wall, step back, take pictures, rearrange, leave them up for days… weeks… OR months.  When it comes to sewing blocks together to create a quilt top, keeping the block arrangement up on the design wall is much more neat and orderly then having the blocks strewn on the floor.  The foam board also accepts pins nicely, so when I have a whole quilt I want to hang up to photograph, for example, I’ll use several pins to support the weight of the quilt to the design wall.

My design wall finishes approximately 54" x 54", which serves my purposes nicely.  Baby quilts or small wall hangings can be easily viewed entirely within the design wall, blocks of larger quilt tops can be laid out a section at a time.