When my daughter started pre-school this fall I was thrilled, and even more so when she started learning her letters and doing amazing crafts and paintings- I was thrilled right up until the point that my refrigerator was full and things were falling off every time we opened it. Yikes! She was so excited to bring her projects home and show them off that I didn't want them to have to be put in an old box in the basement a week later, simply because we didn't have room for them. There HAD to be a better solution, right?

I browsed pinterest- because of course, pinterest HAS to  have fantastic ideas- it is the craft and mommy mecca! I found some good ideas, but nothing I loved, so I merged a few.

Of course, we moved two months later and I had to install it all over again, but I like it even more in the new home.

• 1-2 Pine Boards (I bought mine at Lowes, I basically browsed the lumber section until I found exactly what I wanted and had it cut down to 6' long. Mine are about 2-3 inches tall, 6' long and maybe an inch thick. Make sure you lay them on the floor of the store to ensure that they aren't warped!)
• Paint- I went with black spray paint 
• Metal Clips- I found these at target in the office supply section
• Wood or Gorilla Glue
• Decal- This is purely optional, but after viewing it for a month on the wall with nothing I decided it needed a little something. It was hard for me to pick between this quote and the word Masterpieces from Trading Phrases. 
• Screws/Anchors for installation

Breakdown: 

1. Paint your boards. Be sure to get ALL sides- I even painted the back just in case. If you do it on a windy day like I did it will dry REALLY fast, but it may also get some dirt blown onto it. You know, I guess you've got to take the good with the bad.

2. When the paint dries line up your metal clips along the board at a distance you like. To determine this I didn't really measure, but pulled out two sheets of paper (what I assume most projects are sized like) and lined them up with a 1" gap between them and put the metal clips at the center of where the papers were on the board. Then I measured between them and spaced the rest out the same way. You could also just measure between them, I used 5 clips on mine- however that works best for you.

Once it looked about how I'd like it to I applied some gorilla glue to the back of the metal clips and put them on the board to dry overnight (if using gorilla glue please read the directions thoroughly, I used too much and some that gooped out around the clips- I painted it black, but it still drives me bonkers- learn from my mistakes!) Let it dry overnight. 

Hint: Line the boards up so you only have to measure once- just copy where they are on the first board and apply the clips to the same place on the second! 

3. Your boards are essentially ready to go at this point! I at first applied alligator clips to the back, but upon installing at my first house found that this was a major bother- don't do it! My husband decided to screw them directly into the wall, which works much better. 

Installation Tips: 

• Measure where you want them to go and draw a line. Since I did two they had to match up, my tiny non-math-oriented brain had trouble with this. 
• Put enough space between them that you can adequately hang your child's projects without overlapping the second
• Use a level! These are long boards and you want them to be straight. Believe me. 

It is so funny that you can tell the months that I took these photos simply from the type of projects she worked on that month (Halloween and Valentines Day). Sure, we still have to put her old projects in a box in the basement, but now they get a lot more visibility for a lot longer! 

What do you think, something you'd do? 

Sidenote: I also put magnets on the clips sometimes to change up the feel of the board, it isn't really necessary (and they do fall off) but it is a fun touch, especially if this is in an area of your house that a lot of people see.