I have a giant design wall in my sewing room. It's seven feet high and eight feet wide. I have an extra piece to it where I can make it ten feet wide. The insulation boards I used to make it were originally 8 feet tall, but I can't reach anywhere near that high so I had DH cut them down to seven feet.
You'd think with that size design wall, it would be enough. For some people I'm sure it would be enough. For me, I like having more options than that. I have quilt block design boards that I made using this tutorial. Blocks that are easy to get confused on, like ones with lots of HSTs are really great to lay out on these boards.
I also have a couple medium sized design boards on the wall next to my sewing stations. Why so many? Because I am always using one project as a leader/ender project for another, and sometimes the block boards are just what I need, sometimes the giant design wall is what I need, and other times I need something in between.
Right now there is (most) of a queen sized quilt on my giant design wall. The blocks are very large, and the bottom row doesn't fit on the design wall, but the rest of it is there.
These design walls are flannel over foam board, and there are two pieces of foam board here. For these blocks I need to make sure no fabric is repeated in the same block, so being able to lay out a few at a time is very helpful. I can reach this board while I'm sitting at the sewing machine, so in between adding blocks to a row of the big quilt, I can assemble the small blocks for a different quilt. I don't need to worry about messing up the blocks, or knocking a bunch of pieces to the ground, because they are on the wall and not in my way.
My big design wall is not mounted in any way, the big pieces of insulation board (covered with Warm and Natural batting) are just leaning against the wall. My block design boards are just upright on a shelf like a collection of books. The foam board design walls I have stuck up with Velcro Command Strips. If I want to move them, I can simply pull the foam boards off the wall, then the strips will pull off the wall leaving no damage. I'm sure about the no damage part, because I've moved them several times already. At one point I even had these mounted on the doors to a big wardrobe.
We own our house, but any of my design wall options would work just as well in a rental. There's no big mounting ordeal, no damage to any walls, and easily moved to a different house. Originally I didn't think I had space for a big design wall, until I started facing the sewing furniture towards the center of the room instead of against the walls. Once I made myself a sewing "island" in the room, that freed up the wall space I needed.
If you've been wanting a design wall, but thought you couldn't have one, maybe you can. You may just need to look at it with new eyes. If my house had a long hallway, I'd have put a design wall there. Once I rearranged my sewing room, a design wall fit in there just fine. There are a lot of options for design walls, my first was flannel glued to a bamboo shade so I could roll it up when not in use, since it blocked the closet. I really love having a design wall, or in my case design walls. Sure you can buy them ready made, but DIY ones like mine work just fine, and they are game changers. I used to lay out quilts on my bed, but this is easier, and better, so I highly recommend it. If you really can't have a design wall, a bed or the floor will work though. Where there's a will to quilt, there's a way!
