Stunning DIY Postcard Display for the Modern Home
Displaying Postcards with a Minimalist Aesthetic
What a fantastic collection of memories a postcard collection can be!
Whether they are hand-picked souvenirs from your own travel adventures and museum visits, or handwritten notes from your loved ones, postcards encapsulate nostalgic feelings and memories in a beautiful way — a beautiful piece of home decor.
And they are a great conversation starter with guests!
Your curated collection of postcards will tell stories, evoke nostalgia, and spark curiosity about your life’s journey, and your friends and families’ adventures.
Aren’t there enough postcards and greeting cards that eventually get stuffed away in a junk drawer, left unseen on your shelf, or thrown away?
It’s sad. Right?
An easy way to highlight those memories in a beautiful way is to frame your postcards.
Some more ideas on how to display postcards:
- Make a collage
- organize them by destination
- put them on hangers and mount those to a wall
- mix, and match, put them into a card holder
- or, like in this example: Put them on a beautiful display
They up-level any shelf, desk, sideboard, dresser, or wall. You’ll find lots of creative ways to highlight postcards in the perfect way for your room.
If you’re anything like me, you are looking for a simple but stunning display.
Reduced and modern.
Stylish, cool, but not over the top.
A simple display that looks like your unique one, specifically made for your home. Not anything that could stand on a counter of a store.
❯❯ A few years ago, I wanted to include a set of postcards on a gallery photo ledge.
They needed a frame to add height to the assorted art pieces; space was short and just putting them up without anything wouldn’t have looked good.
But …I didn’t have a lovely frame in the right size.
With a bit of imagination, I turned a leftover piece of hardware cloth and a few paper clips into this amazing postcard display.
The hardware cloth is a simple framing and the decorative paper clips add character, on top of their practical function.
And it didn’t take long at all!
In this guide, I will show you how to make your own DIY hardware cloth postcard display.
It’s only a few steps and not hard at all!
So no matter if you have DIY experience or not, it will be an easy and quick project.
Let’s make your walls come alive with beautiful memories!
DIY Hardware Cloth Postcard Display for 6 postcards (or how many you like)
My original postcard display features six postcards, horizontally.
But the beautiful about DIY-ing is: You can customize the project to your liking!
Stick to my example or get super creative 😉
Create a display of one card, two, or four postcards. Or any number you like.
The beauty of hardware cloth is that it will stand by itself, like a picture frame. It’s really easy to put it up on a dresser or shelf, leaning on the wall.
Materials You’ll Need
Material:
- Your selected postcards
- A piece of nice and intact hardware cloth (in the size of the frame you want to fit all postcards)
- Paper clips – twice the number of postcards
Tools:
- Wire cutter (pliers)
Step-by-Step Instructions to create quick & easy postcard displays
Step 1 | Determine the size for your postcard display and choose where to put them up
The first thing you want to do is go through your favorite postcards, photos, or greeting cards.
Select your gallery wall assortment and arrange them as you like.
While selecting, you also want to consider the place in your house where you want to put them up!
Will you hang them on a wall, put them on a photo ledge, on a shelf, or on top of a sideboard or dresser?
Just to be sure, hold your selected postcards in place and check if they look good in the way you want to arrange them.
Pay attention to:
- Size: Do they fit, considering the additional few centimeters that the framing will add? Do they look good in the space (not too small or big)?
- Size of framing: Imagine the wireframe behind your postcards and decide how large the framing, the empty hardware cloth around the postcards, should be.
- Colors: Is there any colors or shapes in the surrounding that you can play with in your arrangement?
Step 2 | Cut the Hardware Cloth
Once you’ve figured out the arrangement and exact layout of your postcards, you are ready to bring out the hardware cloth.
In the first step, lay it flat.
If it comes from a tight roll, this step will need a bit of work and patience.
Maybe you will need to carefully bend it the opposite way of how it was rolled up, or lay it out and weigh it down for a few hours.
Then, lay out your postcards exactly how you want them in the end.
Bonus tip 1: Look at the wire lines and make sure you have space for your paper clips!
➤ Read step 4 for more details.
Bonus tip 2: If you are putting the postcard display up on a photo ledge or dresser, you want to have a bit more space below the postcards than on the other edges. This visually centers the arrangement.
Finally, cut the piece of hardware cloth according to your arrangement.
Step 3 | Clean up the edges
Next, you want to clean up the edges.
Trim the wires flush.
Step 4 – Create Cutouts for the paper clips
Then, you need to make cut-outs for the paper clips.
In my design, I cut away the two central wires above and below each postcard. But your design might be different, depending on the spacing between the postcards and the size of the paper clip.
Step 5 | Hang your postcards
Done?
Then it’s time to put up your postcards!
Simply clip them to the hardware cloth and your postcard display is done.
Now put your new framed postcards up in your home 😀
In this guide, you have learned how to make your own easy postcard display from hardware cloth.
Have fun displaying postcards around your home!
FAQ
DIY postcard display
Will scissors work if I don't have a wire cutter?
No!
First, it will be terribly annoying. Scissors are not made to cut metal and are not strong enough.
Second, you will destroy the blades (they will deform).
Please buy a small wire cutter and don’t try to do it with your scissors!
Where to get a wire cutter
Wire cutters are available in any hardware store, usually in the pliers’ section, it’s a typical on-stock item.
Where to get hardware cloth
Hardware cloth is available in any typical hardware store. Just ask the staff.
Where to find those beautiful black paper clips
You can find them in your local stationary store or online. Ask the place you are shopping at anyways.
How to get beautiful cards
The vacation postcards and greeting cards you get from family and friends might not be the designs you want to decorate your room with and have them displayed prominently.
Tip 1: Collect your own cards on travels or even in cities close to your home. Museum shops have elegant and stylish designs. Architecture subjects also tend to have reduced, flat modern style of postcards.
Tip 2: Print your own. …There are beautiful printable art pieces on Etsy that are not more expensive than a coffee. Buy printable wall art and let them print at postcard size (a professional print on heavy paper will give you the right quality).
Stunning DIY Postcard Display for the Modern Home
by Corinne
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