Applications - Decorative
[269] Photo wall with magnetic paint
Author: Ken Knoll, www.younghill.net, Griesheim, Germany
A young artist needed only a small budget for his gallery
My project is my photo wall, which extends over three walls in my student digs - all together 17 m long and 1,20 m high! As a background, I painted MDF boards with self-mixed magnetic paint (see below).
The whole thing cost me probably EUR 60 and looks just awesome - as a "housewarming" we did a nice vernissage.
I glued my pictures (I take pictures myself - my art can be viewed on my Homepage) onto screen print boards and I put one S-10-05-N magnet on each top edge. I glued the magnets with Pattex-Montagekleber (without regrets).
I glued two cardboard pieces on the bottom sides of the pictures so they stay even and don't dangle.
This way, I can always change the pictures or move them around when I feel like it. And I constantly need new places for all my pictures (right now I have about 100 hung up).
I used two magnets only for the really big pictures, otherwise one is sufficient for a "normal size" picture, approx. 15x20 cm. In order to prevent the magnets from sliding down on the MDF boards, I glued a piece of masking tape on every magnet. This enhances the friction between wood and slick magnets - this way nothing slides down.
Regarding the self-mixed magnetic paint: I find the ready-mixed paints overly expensive - hence, I mix it myself! I mixed pre-coat paint from the home improvement store with fine iron powder (ebay or even cheaper at MG Powders) at a ratio of 1:1 (relative to the weight). Despite the high iron share, the paint is still suitable for coating. The paint has to be handled and allowed to evaporate outside! Then I coated the MDF boards three times. That was absolutely sufficient in combination with those strong magnets. The mixing ratio is a matter of trial and error - a ratio of 0,75 parts powder to 1 part paint proved to be too weak. At the end, I just added one coat of normal paint.
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