Cindy Riddle

Monday, September 16, 2013

Magnet Wall

While prepping my basement ceiling for a coat of paint. I pulled down sheet metal that had been used for the homes original furnace, but no longer had a purpose. Instead of just tossing it, I decided to make a magnet wall.

The Children's Museum has a couple of magnet walls that I have always admired. So to have one in my own basement seemed like an awesome idea.

I started by hammering the edges to flatten and washing away years of grime.

Since my edges were still a bit raw from where the nails had held it to the ceiling, I decided to trim it out to keep little hands and fingers from getting injured.

I had some scrap 1x4 that I had also found in the rafters. I framed the top and sides like a picture frame using a Kreg Jig to drill pocket holes for stability and aesthetics. For the bottom trim I followed these great plans to create a shelf ledge. I even got to use my new to me air nailer for the first time. I didn't even get scared this time!

For now we have letter magnets for play, but I plan on making other magnet toys too.

Since my sheet metal was pretty thin, I didn't worry about creating a groove for the metal to sit. I just tacked it to the back using 1/2 inch nails. For nails that small I used a needle nosed pliers to hold the nail while hitting it with the hammer.

To hang it I screwed in eyelets at the top and hung it from the rafters in the basement with picture wire. I just couldn't bring myself to drill any holes into the freshly painted concrete walls.