Fridge Magnet Art

I have a thing for magnets and ephemera. I love random post cards, stickers I can't bear to stick to anything and cutouts from magazine ads. For awhile I used my refrigerator as my collage canvas. It was OK but a little messy.

 

When I moved about a year ago I acquired a new stainless steel fridge. Most of my magnets did not stick. Crap! The Beavis seemed somewhat pleased that I could no longer have my crazy, random fridge "art" on display any more. He's a bit of a neatnik. 

So, I came up with this:

Pardon my craptastic photography. The lighting in my kitchen is dark and weird and I'm too lazy to set up the proper lighting.

This piece hangs over my kitchen peninsula and I can change out the artwork whenever I want plus The Beavis likes that my collage is contained and not in the way of him wiping down the refrigerator doors. 

I bought a canvas from the art store and a quart of magnetic paint from the home improvement store. Seriously. That is all you need. Ok, maybe a brush or paint roller and a frame if you want. 

If you don't plan on framing your magnetic art canvas, spend a few extra bucks and get a canvas with a "gallery wrap". This means that the canvas is wrapped around the sides and stapled in the back. You can save some $ by getting a canvas with the staples on the side but no amount of paint can hide those staples. You could also use a canvas board or even just a piece of wood for this project.

I decided to leave the canvas the color of the paint but if you want to get all matchy, matchy you can apply some latex paint over the magnetic paint.

A word to the wise... magnetic paint stinks!!! Do your painting outside and wear breathing gear. Also, it takes many coats of the magnetic paint to lay down the metal particles that your magnets will be attracted to. I ended up putting 10 thin coats on my canvas. After several coats use your heaviest magnet to test the "stickiness". 

One more tip, use a heavy duty hanger when you put your magnet art on the wall. The paint plus your cute little magnets can be rather heavy. I found these awesome hooks at Lowe's that don't damage sheetrock and hold up to 50 lbs.