Magnetic Picture Wall

We recently moved out of a rental and into our own house. The rental had a huge (it must've been around 1.5m tall by 1.2m wide) heavy steel sheet bolted to the staircase wall. We used it as a magnetic picture holder and it was a focal point for the family as everyone could add pictures, awesome test results, and notes for everyone else to see.

Our new house didn't have anything like it, but it did have a very nice blank wall in the entrance hall, so I decided to do something about our situation and come up with an alternative to replace the old steel wall we had.

I've added a plan with measurements for my particular picture wall, but they're extremely easy to modify for any measure you might want to make.

I've entered this 'able in the "Anything Goes" contest, so if you enjoy it, consider giving me your vote. Thanks, and on to the Instructable!

All measurements are metric.

a) 2 sheets of steel. I found precut 100cm x 60cm x 1mm sheets at my local home centre.

b) Stock 24 x 48mm wooden studs. You can use any other wood you have available depending on how big you want to make the picture wall

c) 4.5 x 20 mm screws and washers to hold the metal sheets to the frame

d) 4.5 x 30 mm screws for the frame

e) Drill and metal bit

f) (Optional) Pocket hole jig

g) (Optional) Dremel or angle grinder to round over the corners of the metal sheets

h) (Optional) Router or table saw to make french cleats to hang the picture wall

i) (Mandatory) Safety Gear: Eye protection, hearing protection, and gloves to handle the metal sheets.

1) Cut your stock to measure. In this case, two 100cm and two 70cm lengths.

2) Assemble the frame using pocket hole joinery or simply drill screws into the studs. As all the pocket holes will be hidden from sight, it's optional to sand them.

3) Measure the centre length (in my case, one 90cm. length), and cut to fit. Attach to the frame with pocket holes or screws.

1) Center your frame on the sheet metal. Make marks on your frame to be able to reposition the sheet later, if it moves.

1) Position the sheet metal on top of the frame (remember those marks we made earlier?) and mark where the screws will go (refer to the plans).

2) Predrill a hole on the sheet metal.

3) Fix the sheet metal with screws and washers. Bear in mind the weight of your own sheet metal when deciding how many screws to use.

1) Round over the four corners of the sheet metal. I drew a radius for guidance with a large washer and used a Dremel tool to cut and sand down the metal.

1) Take another length of stud (mine was 60cm long) and cut a 45° angle. You can do this with a router or running the stud along a table saw. I used a table saw on the standalone stud, and ran my router with a 45° bit along the top length of the frame, as I had already assembled it.

1) Hang it up using the safest method for your particular wall. In my case, I used 6 mm anchors and 5x50 screws to fix the cleat to the wall. The frame hangs on the french cleat.

2) Enjoy your magnetic picture wall! Add pictures, notes, drawings or memories and hold them up with magnets. You can get these at your local home improvement centre or directly from Amazon.