Best Magnet Boards for Color Chips: Beautify Your Sewing Space by Displaying Your Magnetic Fabric Swatches

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Loving your magnetic chips? We love ours. They are the perfect decor for any sewing room. We are sharing three of our favorite magnet board options: the classic, the upscale and the budget-friendly. There is something for everyone.

Table of contents:

What are the best magnet boards?
How and where to hang your boards?
How big of a board do I need?

What are the best magnet boards?

Magnetic Whiteboard

Magnetic whiteboards are a classic choice. Mine is a classic white background and a white frame, but all sorts of styles and sizes are available. Your local Target, Walmart or office supply store is likely to have more than one choice. Just be careful, not every whiteboard is magnetic. Always test it’s magnetism before purchasing. Woven and Woolly community member, Jen @sewjenquilts purchased her super cute magnetic white board from Target.

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If you don’t have a local shop near you, I recommend this one on Amazon.

You can also use your magnetic whiteboard for so much more than just chip storage. You can use it to make a mood board for your newest project. Add inspiration pictures, trinkets you’ve picked up, inspiration words, and of course your color palette chosen out of your color chips. You could also use it to track your WIPs or plan out your next few projects. Woven and Woolly community member, Shannon @shannonlookenott uses her white board both to display her color chips but also to keep a list of her current WIPs.

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A post shared by Shannon Scalf Lookenott (@shannonlookenott)

Grey Magnet Boards

Steelmasters’s grey magnet boards have something of a cult following in the quilting community. These sturdy 30″x14″ magnet boards have made it into the studios of many Instagram quilters and make for a beautiful addition to your sewing space. They come with hanging hardware, and are fairly weighty, so make sure you read the instructions before hanging them on the wall. Woven and Woolly community member, Shelley @playingwithfabrics is really a model of how these boards can be both functional and beautiful in her sewing space.

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Best budget magnet board

Looking for a magnet swatch board on a budget? By far the most inexpensive option available is using galvanized steel sheets available at any DIY/home supply store. You can make these as fancy or as simple as you want. I cut a small 9×9″ square that I use for picking new quilt ideas. These sheet can come in rolls which you could use to cover a whole wall with magnet board. You could make a frame around a 2×3′ sheet and hang it like a picture. The customizability is truly endless with galvanized steel sheet.

You could also use a variety of other ferrous (meaning iron containing metals). Stainless steel would be a slightly more expensive option. Zinc or nickel plated steel gives a different color. But stay away from brass or aluminum as these metals are not magnetic.

Sheet metal is relatively easy to cut with tin snips, hack saw, or an electric jigsaw, all of which could be household tools you have on hand. To mount your sheets to your walls, skip ahead to the next section.

How should I hang my magnet board?

We love using Picture Hanging Command strips to hang our magnet boards. They are easy to use and don’t require any tools. They will hold the lightest steel sheet (0.5 lbs) to the heaviest metal bulletin board option (5 lbs), as long as you install them according to the instructions.

Make sure you’re hanging your boards in a location that doesn’t get direct sunlight during the day. Direct sunlight can fade your chips over time.

Keep in mind the ergonomics of using your boards once they are hung. Hang your boards in a location that is easily accessible. I hung my boards behind my ironing board, so I have to reach over it to grab my chips. Sometimes when I’m designing, I actually put away my ironing board to have better access.

How big of a board do I need?

Rules of thumb for AGF PURE Solids or Kona:

All 150 AGF PURE Solids color chips fit comfortably in two 24″x14″ board or one 24″x36″ board.

All 365 Kona color chips fit comfortably in three 24″x14″ boards or two 24″x36″ boards.

At minimum, I recommend one 24″x36″ board for a full set of Kona’s 365 colors. There won’t be much wiggle room with only one board.

Calculate number of boards that aren’t Woven and Woolly Color Chip sized:

Woven and Woolly color chips are about 1.5″ tall and 1″ wide. To give them room on your board to mix and match, I recommend estimating 2″x1.5″ for each chip on your board which is 3 inches square per chip. If you cut up your Kona color card, your swatches will be the same size. If you cut up a different color card or made your own, round up to the nearest 1/2″ on the length and width.

You can use the equation below to calculate how many boards you need.

Do you have magnetic color chips? How do you display them? Share your favorite method by tagging @wovenandwoolly or #wwcolorchips on Instagram.

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