bar7700 wrote: Totally agree on the brown. The project shows up and the brown does not detract. White definitely would detract because the eye goes straight to it.

I believe that on an old Simply Quilts episode, Kaffe Fassett (or his stunt sewer?) said that they recommended a tan background for the design wall.

BethMI

Mine is cream too. I like the idea of a black or brown one but I think it might darken the room too much. The lighter colours will reflect light.

Mine is cream.

My design wall is brown! First one was white. Read online by a quilting expert that brown was the best color for your design wall. I tried it and the difference was amazing. The colors on my quilt tops stood out so much better.

I was in the store to price flannel or batting for my design wall and found a Fons & Porter design wall. It cost $20 which is what the insulation board alone was going to cost so I decided to try it. It is flannel on one side and vinyl on the other side like an outdoor table cloth and has a 2" grid that subtely shows through on the flannel side. It has ringed eyelets for hanging. I put it up with removable stick up hooks in case I didn't like it. So far it works well for me. My projects stick to it well without pins and its easy to put up and take down so its also portable. It's 60X72.

Charae, mine is sage green and I wouldn't ordinarily admit it because I know experts would say I can't possibly see the true colors of the fabrics without a neutral background. My reasoning is this: 1) like Lorchen I don't care for white walls, either 2) the design area takes up almost one whole wall and isn't always covered by quilt fabric so I would have to look at a stark white space that would be very out of place in my home 3) I'm never going to see the finished quilt in a neutral/white environment either because my whole house is intentionally full of color and texture. So I say use whatever makes you happy!

Charae, mine is cream. I would find a solid white space quite intimidating. I want a fairly neutral colour (black would be fine for me), as long as it is not white. I have no idea why white seems to be so popular. But then I'm also not very keen on white walls because I think they are 'cold'. Ah well, as long as we all get what we are happy with.....

Ok, so I have to ask a dumb question. What's the theory about using white for a design wall? Long before I knew what others did, I covered my design wall in black flannel. Contrary, huh?
I struggle with color anyway~which isn't the fault of my black design wall, but may be why I did something so diametrically opposite. I had to laugh at myself when I noticed the white walls everyone else uses.

Margo you have a good point. It could be the coating. I don't remember what brand I bought. Too many years ago. I used the silver duct tape. Fought the edges not staying stuck..... Since this subject has come up I did some thinking and wonder if it was because the edges of the foam board had been cut. So the coating wasn't there on the edges. I remember when I moved the wall all these little styro foam pieces were all over the floor. Things that make you go, hmmmm!

Margo wrote:
Or maybe humidity : : :
I've had good luck using a large piece of flannel as my design wall. It is actually the flannel from Cheryl's Design Wall. I could never get the frame to stay together so I decided to just hang the darned flannel on the wall. I use the 3M removable adhesive hooks on the wall and the big black office clips clipped to the flannel with the little metal handles of the clips hanging from the hooks on the wall. So far so good! When it is really hot here in Texas (most of the time) and I have the ceiling fan on, it blows the blocks off the flannel :shock: so I just run some straight pins through the corners of the blocks. Whatever works, right :

Dawn, I was thinking the same thing. It worked for me.

Duct tape worked fine for me too! I'm thinking that it must have something to do with the coatings on the different types of foam core?

bar7700 wrote:
Okay, so I'm wondering why my duct tape has worked like a charm, twice! I did not use the original "silver" kind, but the white roll. Sticks very well to my fleece and the tyvek coating of the foam core board. My roll is about 2" wide. So, I am puzzled when people say duct tape doesn't work! :

Dawn
In beautiful Northwest Montana