Our kids loved playing with magnets on the fridge, but I wanted to find a way to move them out of the kitchen and back into the living room. I had the hardest time finding a large magnet board that I liked, so I decided to make one! Here are instructions for creating a 24″ by 36″ magnet board. I’ll show you where I found the supplies and how to assemble and hang the board.

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Supplies:

  • 24″ by 36″ sheet metal
  • 24″ by 36″ picture frame
  • Magnets

Sheet Metal

I used the 24″ by 36″ sheet metal from Home Depot. I recommend buying the sheet metal at the store (opposed to ordering online) so you can inspect it and make sure it’s free of scratches and doesn’t have any bent corners.

Here’s a link to the 24″ by 36″ 26-Gauge Zinc Metal Sheet.

Picture Frame

Michaels sells several open 24″ by 36″ picture frames, which are perfect for creating a magnet board because you don’t want to deal with any glass. I went with the Belmont Frame by Studio Decor. They have a variety of colors to choose from:

The links above will take you to the correct color frame, but make sure to select the correct size. The 24″ by 36″ frame is not the default size.

I’ve also been told never to buy anything full price at Michaels. Right now as I write this, the frames are on sale for $20, down from $49.99. If the frames aren’t on sale, make sure to Google and find a coupon! They often have coupons for regular priced items.

Magnets

Melissa and Doug sells a variety of magnets on Amazon. Buy a couple different themes to keep the littles interested!

Assembly

Once you have the supplies, it’s time to assemble the magnet board!

  1. I decided to assemble the magnet board on the carpet in our living room. This way I didn’t have to worry about scratching our kitchen table or scratching the surface of the sheet metal.
  2. Place the picture frame so the front face of the frame is touching the carpet.
  3. Now it’s time to remove the backing. The backing is kept in place with small metal tabs. Start to bend these back so you can remove the backing. There are quite a few tabs, so I used a pen cap (with a flat top) to help push the tabs back.
  4. Once the backing is removed, you can set the piece of sheet metal in the frame.
  5. Place the backing over the sheet metal and close all the tabs.

Now the magnet board is ready hang on the wall!

Hanging the Magnet Board

The sheet metal makes the frame pretty heavy. Even though the frame has pre-attached hanging hardware, I don’t recommend using this to hang the frame.

We actually used screws and drilled right into the picture frame, which helped make the frame more rigid. Also, we wanted to make sure the screws hit studs, so we used our stud finder to help located two studs. This is the stud finder we have which works really well!

Studs are generally spaced around 16″ on center. The outer length of the frame, from edge to edge is approximately 38″. Our screws are spaced 31.5″ apart, approximately 3.25″ in from each edge. The four screws are identified in the following photo with white arrows.

Time to Use and Enjoy!

Once the magnet board is on the wall, it’s time to add the magnets and let your little ones play! Our two year old loves to play search and find while the one year old twins enjoy just moving the magnets around the board. I’m sure they’ll continue to use the board in different ways as they grow and develop.

Let me know if this is something you’ve tried or if you have any questions!