While chatting with a fellow photographer last year, she reported that instead of framing her prints for display in her home, she has a wall covered in metal and attaches the prints with rare earth magnets. This allows for a very easy, fluid way to display images. The idea stuck with me, and I am now thinking about doing the same thing. Does anyone have any experience with this method of displaying prints? The hard part obviously is getting the metal on the wall, no idea how to do this. The best I have come up with so far is a large magnetic white board.
cover your wall with magnet material. Comes in rolls 24"-39". coat it with adhesive and cover wall. you can then cover that with wall paper, if you like. Or you can place smaller patches of magnet say 16x20 and change up images as you like.
Now the print part, take any type of print, inkjet or c-print and mount it to magnetic receptor paper. this is a thin paper with a metal backing, also flexible. doesn't add any real thickness to the print. Or depending who does your printing you can print direct to the receptor paper. The paper come in rolls up to 60"wide.
this has become a very common way of doing displays in the retail world. they change out graphics every month, so its easy for store employees to change and no need to bring in an installer.
In the studio we have a metal wall, made of sheet metal and painted. we use this to view prints on. Just hold them to the wall with magnets. Just like a refrigerator.
hope this helps
Galvanized sheet metal, from a HVAC supplier, is what I'd use. Mount the sheet to wooden shims, and consider "folding" a safety edge on the sheets. You will need strong magnets to overcome paper weight and paper curl. See this thread on Lula:
This thread discussed the sheet metal "bulletin board" and sources of magnets:
