I advised y’all in a earlier put up about how a really sort and beneficiant reader supplied to print my panorama design plan for me, and she or he had the potential of printing it HUGE. So I took her up on her very beneficiant provide and had the panorama design printed 52″W x 78″H. I want y’all may see this factor in particular person as a result of it’s magnificent. However it additionally introduced a dilemma. How on the earth was I going to mount and body a HUGE print like that?
For those who’re new round right here, that is the panorama design I’m speaking about…
Matt (my husband) had purchased that panorama design for me about two years in the past. I met with an area panorama designer and advised him all of my needs and imaginative and prescient for our one acre lot, and that’s the design he got here up with. I believe it’s so fairly, so I’ve been eager to have it printed and dangle it on a wall ever since I noticed it the primary time.
With the print being so huge, I although the simplest factor can be to mount the print on plywood, after which body it and dangle it. Tremendous easy, proper? So a few days in the past, I headed to Residence Depot to select up a chunk of plywood for this challenge, and it wasn’t till I had parked and was getting out of the automotive that it dawned on me…this factor is 52″ x 78″!! A bit of plywood is just 48″ broad!
So then I needed to cease and rethink my plan. What I got here up with was a plan to principally construct an enormous cradle wooden panel, which is strictly what I used to mount my little resin petri discs on. It’s principally a body of wooden with a stable piece of plywood or MDF hooked up to the highest to create a wooden canvas.
Besides that as an alternative of it being a tiny 5″ x 5″, I wanted it to be about 150 occasions that dimension. 😀
And since I all the time work alone, one other consideration I needed to work by was whether or not or not I’d be capable of construct this huge cradle wooden panel after which mount it on the wall on my own. Since I’m solely 5 ft tall, which implies that my arm span from fingertip to fingertip is 5 ft, I critically doubted my capability to raise a 52″ x 78″ cradle wooden panel off the ground and hoist it onto no matter hanger I made a decision to make use of. So as an alternative, I made a decision to construct the cradle wooden panel immediately on the wall.
I began through the use of my stage, framing sq., straight edge (i.e., a chunk of additional lumber), and a pencil to mark off the position of the underside proper nook. I want that I may have constructed this simply above the baseboard, however as you possibly can see, I needed to clear {the electrical} outlet.
Subsequent, I used a stud finder to mark the position of the wall studs alongside the underside horizontal line.
I lower a chunk of two″ x 2″ lumber to 52″ broad, after which used the wall markings to mark the position of the studs on the lumber. I pre-drilled screw holes, after which used my largest bit to drill about 1/2-inch into the lumber in order that I may countersink my screws, and in order that they’d be lengthy sufficient to enter the studs.
I hooked up that horizontal board to the wall alongside the marked line utilizing 2.5-inch screws. I used my stage to double test that the road was stage.
Subsequent, I lower and hooked up the vertical 2″ x 2″ items. I didn’t screw these to the wall, and I didn’t be sure that they had been in studs. For the reason that weight of those items can be held by the underside horizontal piece, I solely wanted to make certain that these items had been firmly hooked up to the wall and to the underside piece. I began through the use of my nail gun and 2-inch 16-gauge nails to nail by the underside horizontal piece and into the tip of the vertical items. I used three nails on all sides.
With these items hooked up to one another, I then used my framing sq. to verify the vertical items had been completely sq. with the underside piece, after which nailed the vertical piece on the proper to the wall utilizing those self same 2-inch 16-gauge nails.
Subsequent, I hooked up the highest piece. This one was screwed into studs similar to the underside piece, and it was additionally nailed to the vertical piece similar to I did on the underside corners.
After which lastly, I completed up by nailing the left vertical piece to the wall and to the highest horizontal piece.
To make it possible for the vertical items stayed firmly in opposition to the wall, I additionally went again and added nails going diagonally from the within fringe of the wooden and into the wall. The aim of that’s to create stress. With the nails going by the entrance of the wooden and straight into the wall, and the nails going diagonally from the within fringe of the wooden and into the wall, these vertical items gained’t draw back from the wall.
And once more, the vertical items don’t actually have to hold weight as a result of the burden is resting on the underside piece, which is screwed into studs, and the highest piece can also be screwed into studs in order that it gained’t draw back from the wall.
For the face of the cradle wooden panel, I had to make use of two items of plywood as a result of, once more, plywood is just 48 inches broad and this panel is 52 inches broad. So I wished so as to add a chunk of lumber horizontally the place the 2 items of plywood would meet in order that I may nail the sides of the plywood to this piece. I didn’t wish to buy one other piece for this, so I simply used a scrap, which was only a few inches shy of the entire width. That’s not an issue so long as additionally it is firmly hooked up to the wall. So I hooked up it in the identical means because the vertical items, with nails going immediately by the entrance into the wall, and the nails going diagonally by the highest and backside edges and into the wall.
Then I used to be prepared to connect the primary piece of plywood. I began with the little piece in order that I may extra simply maintain it into place whereas nailing it to the wooden body.
After which I did the larger piece on high in order that I may relaxation the burden of the larger piece on the underside piece whereas I nailed it into place.
You’ll discover that there’s a spot between the items that will get larger in the direction of the proper facet. I had checked and double checked my body to make certain the corners had been completely sq., so when the second piece of plywood didn’t line up completely with the body, I knew the difficulty was the plywood. So I needed to straighten it out across the edges, which created that hole between the 2 items. Issues like that may occur (and have occurred to me many occasions) once I let Residence Depot or Lowe’s lower my plywood for me.
I wasn’t fairly certain what to do about that hole. Wouldn’t it present by the print? Wouldn’t it create an unpleasant ripple? I bought the print out and tacked it to the panel to find out learn how to proceed.
This paper is tremendous thick, however I may nonetheless see a distinction in shade at that hole. And I do plan to color the entire panel white earlier than mounting the print, so leaving the hole wasn’t actually an possibility.
So then I needed to determine learn how to fill the hole. Caulk didn’t seem to be a great possibility. I wanted one thing that might be sanded easy. However wooden filler didn’t seem to be an inexpensive possibility as a result of the hole was too broad. That a lot wooden filler wouldn’t solely take without end to dry, however would undoubtedly crack, requiring a number of coats and lots of hours of ready.
The choice I believed was the most effective was to make use of drywall tape and dirt.
In order that’s the place I left the challenge. It is going to in all probability want at the very least another coat of drywall mud after I sand what’s there. (I’m not good in any respect with drywall mud.) After which I’ll prime and paint the panel, then mount the print, after which body the entire thing.
In fact, I may have simply opted to connect the print on to the wall, after which use image body molding to border it. I got here very near doing that, however in the long run, I simply felt like that wouldn’t give the print the prominence it deserves. It might make it look extra like wallpaper than a separate piece of framed artwork. And I believe this undoubtedly deserves to be a separate piece of framed artwork, so ensuring that it tasks from the wall two inches will make it appear like it’s mounted on a gallery wrapped canvas. This print deserves that.
Addicted 2 Adorning is the place I share my DIY and adorning journey as I transform and beautify the 1948 fixer higher that my husband, Matt, and I purchased in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do bodily work, so I do the vast majority of the work on the home on my own. You can learn more about me here.