Building an Art Studio Painting Wall
The painting wall in action.
I have a confession to make…I procrastinate. It can take me a long time to get things done especially if it involves asking others for help.
Case in point: I have wanted a painting wall in my studio for years but haven’t gotten around to installing one…until now.
After much wanting and delaying and thinking about and coveting other artists’ painting walls, I finally took the plunge and had one built.
It was, in fact, rather easy to do. I asked my builder friend for help and just a few days later it was done.
What, you may ask, is a painting wall?
A painting wall is a solid surface, often made of wood, that is built in front of and away from an existing drywall, plaster or brick wall. Screws or other kinds of hanging hardware are then added to the new solid wall making a secure surface on which to hang painting panels or canvases while working on them.
Similar to an easel although larger, it enables an artist to work on a painting or several paintings while standing, and allows for the work to be more easily moved.
Advantages of a painting wall
A painting wall makes it easy to stand and work, enabling large body movements which bring a dynamism to a painting difficult to achieve when seated to work.
A canvas on a painting wall is almost vertical and that verticality allows for a better perspective of the work compared to a painting resting on a tabletop or the floor.
Several canvases can be up on the wall at the same time allowing moving from one to another quickly without having to stop to move them on and off of an easel.
When I used an easel, my paintings fell off of too often to be funny.
Painting while standing is much easier on my neck versus when sitting to work.
A painting wall makes working on large panels a breeze.
The design
My studio wall is about 12 feet long and the painting wall was built over the entire length of the existing wall. The two adjoining side walls were also built out for an additional length of 4’ each. So the overall linear measurement of the new wall is 20’.
The pegboard painting wall corner.
The painting wall angled away from the wall.
It was my builder who suggested we build the wall out of pegboard rather than plywood. Doing so would allow me many options to easily rearrange my paintings in progress on hooks, at just about any height and in any configuration.
The pegboard sheets come in 8’ lengths that are 4’ wide, so we opted to use the 4’ width as the height dimension of the painting wall. The bottom edge of the pegboard is 33” from the floor which puts the painting wall at the ideal height for me to work.
My builder also helped me design the painting wall with a slight tilt outwards at the bottom. This means that when a painting is on the wall the bottom edge of the panel always touches the wall.
This way, a panel or canvas is more secure and is less prone to movement as I’m working on it. The angle is the same one as the most vertical position of my old easel: 1” out for every 24” in height.
To secure the pegboard to the existing wall horizontal battens were attached to the wall studs. To the battens my builder attached the pegboard.
And just like that my new painting wall was done.
The hardware
At first I tried using short ¼” dowels as the hanging system for my panels but the panels slid off of the dowels at the slightest movement. This was never going to work long term so another solution was needed.
The painting wall initial hardware fail!
After this initial hardware failure I sourced 1 ½” pegboard “L” hooks for my paintings in progress. These hooks allow me to either hang work from them or rest work on top of them, perfect for wood panels or stretched canvas. These hooks do the job and keep the paintings steady on the wall even when I am a little rough with them, painting and scraping and sanding away.
A sample hook for the pegboard wall.
A hook in action on the pegboard wall.
Working with ease
As of this writing, the new painting wall has been in place for only about a month. I’m thrilled that it is working like a charm and is everything I had wanted, thought about, and delayed getting for years.
I’ve already begun painting on larger panels and am enjoying the freedom of working on several panels at once, standing and moving to work with ease.
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