Photographers always have this feeling of exhibiting their photos either for other people or even for their own viewing pleasure. For me sharing my photos is a way of getting my perspective out, and letting other people know more about my life and my perspective. I’ve already done spreading my photos all over the internet and on some print media, and this time, I was thinking of doing something a bit more personal. So I decided to make this cheap and easy-to-do photo wall for my room.

Photo Wall Ideas

While searching online, I came across two interesting ideas, which included magnets and metals as the core materials. The first one, included painting the wall with a metallic paint and then laying over magnet/s on top of the photos to suspend them. The second used several pieces of colored metallic strings draped across the wall instead of the metallic paint. I scrapped the metallic paint idea since it is quite expensive and labrious to cover a whole wall of metallic paint.

I’m not sure if there are colored strings available in our local hardware/craft stores but the first thing that popped into my head when I started thinking about improvising, is using paper clips. Perfect! because they are cheap and easy to find.

Materials needed for the Paperclip Magnet DIY Photo Wall:

  1. Colored Paperclips – I bought packs of mine in an old school/office supply store in Downtown Iloilo (The Commoner) for a cheap price.
  2. Stick-on Hooks – Ace Hardware has some variety of stick on transparent plastic hooks you can use.
  3. Small to Medium sized Magnets – It was hard at first to find these magnets in Iloilo but I finally found an electronic/hardware store along De Leon St. (near Robinsons), which sells magnets of various sizes. Make sure the magnet you buy is strong/big enough to hold the photos. You can bring along paper clips and  sample photos for testing just to be sure.

Easy step-by-step instructions on how to construct the Photo Wall:

  • Connect the paperclips together to form a line long enough to span the height of the wall. Do several of these paperclip lines. You can arrange them by color or whatever you like.
  • Stick on the plastic hooks on the wall. I spaced them out evenly across the middle part of the wall but you can also do it your own way.
  • Get your photos on the paper clips and put the magnets over the photos. If the photos fall out easily, use a bigger magnet or put more magnets on the photos.

That’s how I did it. I now have a photo wall beside my workstation to inspire me whenever I feel like being distracted and if my friends come over, they have something interesting to look at.

Problems I came across with the Paperclip Magnet Photo Wall:

  • Sometimes the photos keep falling off because the magnets I use are weak. I did a workaround by clipping the bottom part of the photo to the paperclip line.
  • The fan in my room sometimes accidentally blows on the side of the wall, turning the photos to its backside. I have to flip the photos over from time to time.