Remember when accent walls were all the rage? And now they’re… not. Well, not in terms of one wall painted a different color from the rest, but I still see some cool accent walls in other forms: exposed brick walls, gallery walls, and wallpapered walls to name a few.
When I turned the home office into my design studio, I knew I needed a focal point in the room that would scream “creativity lives here.” Just to really clear out the stuffiness from the old office, you know? So what did I do? I created a feature wall that was both pretty and functional.
After we moved out all the furniture and office clutter, the studio was given a fresh coat (or three) of white paint on every vertical surface, but one. On the wall directly opposite the entry into the room, I left it unpainted in order to install a magnetic wall that would serve as an inspiration board to hang up design notes and sketches as I work. And yes, I need an entire wall because this girl’s got lots of creativity to use up! But when all that inspiration was applied to my finished projects, I wanted the empty board to still look good.
If you are so keen to make a feature magnetic wall of your own, here is how I did mine:
Supply List
• 22ga galvanized hot rolled sheet metal
• Extra strong double-sided adhesive tape (I used heavy duty carpet tape, but there are much stronger tapes than that)
• Construction adhesive (depending on the size of your wall, you will need several tubes)
• Scrap wood pieces
• Power drill and screws
• Level
• Pencil
• Damp cloth
Step-by-Step
Step 1
VERY IMPORTANT. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP. [Not pictured] With a long level, check the squareness of your walls by drawing a line along all corners and edges of the wall. My wall was completely NOT square and it’s so important to know this before you take final measurements and order your sheet metal. There is no way to fudge metal sizes if you’re a hair too big.
My wall is 106″W x 66″H, so I needed to order my metal in four sheets to cover the entire wall. I could have ordered the metal in two - 106″x33″ sheets, but it meant I would’ve had to wait until Monday for delivery and I was just too anxious to take home the material that day to start the work. I got my metal from Metal Supermarkets. They have locations all over North America.
Step 2
[Not pictured] Since I needed four panels for my wall, I marked the locations of the panels on the wall so I knew where to place them.
Step 3
If you are doing a wall from ceiling to floor, you can skip this step. As I was only doing half a wall above the desk surface, I had to install the metal panels from the top down to ensure fit as I allowed for wiggle room behind the desk. In order to keep the top panels from sliding down the wall, I screwed fences in the wall using scrap wood I had laying around. I found out that my wall isn’t exactly flat, so the horizontal fences I initially screwed in were absolutely no help. The metal panels kept sliding behind the cracks of the fences! So, learn from my mistake and just install vertical fences as shown in the photo.
Step 4
Lay down really strong double-sided tape around the borders of the metal. This will assist in holding the panels in place until the glue dries. Then run several beads of construction adhesive along the borders and center of the panels.
Step 5
Apply the glued up panels to the wall (get an extra pair of hands to help you - the metal can be really heavy!). Use a damp cloth to wipe down all the dirt and fingerprints on the metal while putting pressure over the entire surface to adhere it to the wall. (Double duty!) If you started at the top like I did, wait for the top panels to dry overnight. After top panels are dry, remove the fences and install the lower panels.
The Artwork
The art I chose to cover the magnetic surface was from a set of blueprints I drew in college. That set of working drawings earned me FIRST PLACE in the student design show that year, so I’m quite proud of those drawings still. I’ve also spent a lot of my time during my interior design career doing drawings, so it seemed fitting to use this piece of history as my feature art. I touched up the floor plan using PhotoShop and then sent it in to EazyWallz to print as adhesive wall mural. They are so wonderful to work with, let me tell you!
I just love my magnetic accent wall!
Project
Summary:
Total Time: 2.5 days total
Total Cost: $109.44 for the sheet metal + $316.58 for the adhesive wall mural + $25 for the tape and glue = $451.02
To tour the rest of the studio, check out this post:
I’ve linked up this project at these parties here.
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