Here’s an easy summer project that you can use to decorate your office! It takes about an hour, plus time to let the spray paint dry. 

DIY Frame Display finished!

Do-It-Yourself Frame Display Board: 

You’ll need: 

  1. Frame with back and glass removed. I picked mine up at an antique store sale for less then 10 bucks. It was already painted a color I liked, so I didn’t even have to change that. Other great places to look are thrift stores or garage sales. You can use any size frame, but larger is a little easier to attach items to when you are all finished. 
  2. Chicken wire. You can find this at a hardware store such as Home Depot. You can buy it by the roll, or they have it in bulk and you can just buy a few feet. 
  3. Metal spray paint. I didn’t want a shiny silver for my chicken wire, so I just picked up a can of metal spray paint at Home Depot as well. I like the more antiqued look. 
  4. Staple gun and staples. Every crafter needs one of these! It makes this project a breeze. 
  5. Wire cutters or strong, sharp scissors. 
  6. Measuring tape.
  7. Cardboard or drop cloth or some other area to spray paint on. You don’t need a mess on your garage floor. 
  8. Clothes pins or clips to attach photos, flowers, and other baubles to your finished frame display. You might find these at a fabric store or at a craft store, like Michael’s or JoAnn Fabrics. 

Materials for DIY Frame Display

Okay! Let’s get started. 

Step One: Measure and cut your piece of chicken wire. 

The easiest, low tech way to do this is just to lay your frame over the unrolled chicken wire and snip away. You actually want a bit of overhang anyways, so you’ll cut a piece that is larger then you need. 

Cut piece of chicken wire

Step Two: Spray paint! 

This is the fun part. Lay your chicken wire on top of your piece of cardboard or whatever you are using as a work surface. Spray paint away! Follow instructions for shaking the paint, aiming and drying times. Make sure you are using a “metal” spray paint, to reduce the risk of the paint flaking off later. 

DIY Frame Display-3 spray painting chicken wire

You probably want to spray paint both sides, from a few angles, to totally cover the wire. You may need to do multiple coats. Let the paint dry before proceeding to the next step. 

Step Three: Attach the wire to the frame using your staple gun. 

This part is just a little tricky. You want to lay your chicken wire on the BACK side of your frame and lay them both flat on the ground or a work table, so that the back with the wire is facing up. 

To attach, you want to staple an anchor staple on each side of the frame, in the middle-ish. This will keep the wire from sliding around on you too much. It’s also best to staple the wire to the frame where it has a twist in it, and possible do two staples like so:

DIY Frame Display-5 staple chicken wire to frame where there is a twist.

This also keeps it from sliding, because the next step will involve pulling it taut, and you don’t want it to be shifting everywhere! 

So now, as you go around each side of the frame to secure the wire, pull it a little bit taut so that the chicken wire doesn’t sag in the middle too much. A little sagging will happen (such is life!) but we want it as straight and tight as we can get it. 

Staple the four sides first, then the corners, then about every 2-3 inches depending on the size of your frame.

Step Four: Trim the excess wire. 

Cut around the perimeter and trim the excess chicken wire. You can leave about an inch to 3/4 of an inch straight wires: 

Trimming the chicken wire excess from the wooden frame

Step Five: Fold the trimmed wires down, so they don’t snag anything. 

The folding also helps keep the wire in place through countless pinning and unpinning of items to the board. Go along the perimeter and fold each of the wires down and at a slight angle

DIY Frame Display-11 folding the wires down on the DIY frame

And that’s it! 

I love my new board for pinning inspiration images, vintage clips and other fun little items. I’ve also used it at craft fairs as a display board and it works great! 

Finished DIY Display Board

You can use these vertically or horizontally. Don’t forget to attach picture hanging hardware if you want to hang yours on the wall. Mine typically leans up against things, but it would work either way!

finished DIY display board