How to make a DIY Poster Hanger

Making a lightweight poster hanging frame.  DIY tutorial.

I wanted to hang some wall art without the struggle of drilling large holes all the way through the plaster, which is somewhat fragile, and into the brick.  I also wanted to do a fun project as a break from the construction zone all around me.  I had seen scroll style poster frames before, the kind in a school room for storing and pulling down maps, so I set out to recreate the look myself. 

 A frugal decorating win here, the whole project was less than £10 and didn't take long.  The art is a vintage map and one of my own drawings. 

I was worried that rolled up and stuffed on a shelf might not be the safest place for these during our 'settling in' process. 

 

To make this little hanging system you'll need a tape measure, screw eye hooks, a little saw, some string, a pencil, the wood, and magnetic strips (the stick on kind with the peel off backs, they are pretty easy to find in a roll or as a sheet you can cut.) I found the wood at our local handyman center, I think it is usually used for trimming things out. 

Measure the piece you want to hang, then measure and mark the lengths you need on your strip of wood.  I left a little over hang on either side of my posters.  Keep measuring, double check!  

Once you are satisfied go ahead and cut out the wooden borders, you'll need two (top and bottom).  The wood I used was small, light, and easy to saw through.

Next take the screw eye hooks, small hooks with a little screw point on the end, and mark where you want the hanging string to attach on the top edge of the wood border.  Push/screw the hooks into the wood.  This wood was soft enough that installing the hooks was easy to do by hand, but you could skip this and just tie the string to the wooden frame.

In my first attempt I used binder sliders instead of magnets and they were not strong enough, also trying to glue them on was a sticky mess.  

The magnet strips with peel off adhesive backs were so simple to use.  Cut 4 pairs of magnets, each about 4 inches in length, peel and stick one to the back of the wooden borders in each corner. Use the second magnet from each pair to secure the poster to the first, like a magnet/poster sandwich, no need to peel the adhesive strip this time. 

Not the greatest lighting here, I know, I know.

Decide how long you want the poster to hang down, I tried to keep the hanging string in proportion the the size of the poster, as it is now apart of the finished look.  Tie the string to your two screw eye hooks and hang it!  There are so many ways to customize this project, but for now I'm loving the natural wood. 

So there it is, a very simple frugal framing project, and because I used magnets the art can be swapped out for something new with minimal effort.  

-Nicole