This is one of those super simple projects that has been on the to-do list for what seems like eons, but there was always something else that had to be done first.  Until now.  My daughter has always loved to color and paint, but now it appears she is also into mass production of her work so she really needed somewhere to display her work other than the refrigerator door.  How many pictures can one frig door be expected to hold?

Enter the super simple art rail to save the day.  I wish I could claim this idea as my own, but for me the inspiration came from this post on Ana-White.com back in 2010.  Told ya it’s been on the to-do list a long time.  Her plan was super simple, use some 1×2′s, clothes pins, glue & paint and that is pretty much what I did.  Almost.

My biggest change to the plan was to purchase lathe strips for like .35 cents a piece at my local HD, in place of the 1×2′s.  This wasn’t my original intention.  I came across the box of lathe strips while digging through the pine 1×2′s in search of some straight boards.  The box of strips was just sitting there at the end of the aisle.  For .35 cents a piece how could I not take a look and the idea of a thinner strip was appealing.  Less bulk protruding from the wall and anything hanging would lie almost flat against the wall.  Perfect.  Amazingly, without much effort I found several straight pieces close to the same width and purchased them.

Now it was time to paint (wood was sanded lightly prior to painting).  The clothes pins and strips were spray painted (surprise!) in Rustoleum’s 2x Coverage – Lagoon and then allowed to dry.  Once the paint was dry, wood glue was used to apply the pins to the strips.  I should note the strips were only available in 4′ lengths (+/-), but matching two up to create one long length was fairly simple to do.   The newly completed rails were left to dry overnight before hanging on the wall with screws.  I thought it might be necessary to use anchors to keep the rails secured to the wall, but due to the super light weight of the rails 2″ screws held everything in place nicely.

The rail currently hangs on a wall in our dining/kitchen area and the plan is to surround it with other framed art pieces and possibly a small shelf to display some of the kids other creations.  This simple art rail now allows my daughter to proudly display all of her current favorites and change them out whenever she feels the need.  Why didn’t I do this sooner??

Cost Breakdown:

Lathe Strips: .35 cents x 2

Clothes Pins: $1

Spray Paint: $3

Wood Glue: $0 (on hand)

Total: $4.70