Megaposter Curtain - As Big As You Like It!

Intro: Megaposter Curtain - As Big As You Like It!

This is how to make a real big "poster" from any picture you like.Just everyone who saw mine was amazed :D So this seems to be really cool ^^

2 meters wide (6.56 foot), 1.6 meters tall (5.25 foot).

I use metric standard for the measurements, but here is a calculator if you want inch or yard or something:
http://jumk.de/calc/

Let's go, make some kewl stuff for your wall!

STEP 1: What You Need

needed things:
- a picture of choice (the more megapixel, the better)
- a good picture editing tool (photoshop, paint shop pro, illustrator, or something that provides slicing an image into little pieces - usually used for weblayouts)
- your favorite photo printing service
- some meters of clock-chains (I think, I used about 20 meters)
- some eyehooks (if they'r really called so - I needed exactly 242)
- a can of spraying adhesive (no, you won't need the whole can)
- nails (I needed 12)
- a hammer (for the nails)
- a drilling machine
- a sandpaper sponge (or something this way)
- two flat pairs of pliers
- a foil pen (like edding - mhh smells good)
- something to measure
- much time

helpful things:
- a metal sheet as drilling stencil (you will love it when drilling 242 holes)
- a vacuum cleaner (for removing the wood dust from the wooden plates)
- a stable bar (as long as the poster will be wide - better longer)
- twelfe key rings (the bar should go through them)
- a second or third person (the bar, the key rings and the person will be needed to bring this huge thing on your wall)

STEP 2: Preparing the Picture

I just wanted some beach feeling in my room, so I chose this beach picture. unfortunately it's not one of my own photos. but, who cares? ;)

First you need to blow up the image, too bad I can't remember how big I made it.

So I decided to make it 11 by 11 single pictures -> now you only have to calculate how big it should be:

recommended resolution for 15cm x 10cm prints is approx. 800 x 1200 Pixel
800*11 = 8800 pixel
1200*11 = 13200 pixel

Now you know the dimensions you need - I did this with only 512MB RAM, this is a hard way, but RAM wasn't as cheap as now in 2005 when I did this ;)

OK - It's big now! But loss of quality.
If you ever looked very close to a big poster, you might have seen the technique they use: halftone printing.
Let's do this with our huge picture now - apply a raster-filter. If your software doesn't have one, just google for a plugin.

I applied the filter on a duplicated layer of the picture and overlayed it with about 50%. Don't make the rasters too big or too small. It's much faster to test it with a small part from your picture, as 8800x13200 will take much RAM and CPU power.

After applying the rasterfilter, you have to slice the whole thing into pieces. (121 in this case)
I used Paint Shop Pro 7 or 8 for this.
There it is: German(Englisch) Datei(File) -> Exportieren(Export) -> Bildunterteilung(Image separation ,I think)
then click 'Tools -> Raster'
click at the preview area and enter 11 for columns and rows
save as...

now you're done with this part

STEP 3: Order Prints

This is where your favorite printservice comes into play.

There are now 121 pictures waiting to be printed on glossy or matte paper. (I preferred glossy prints)

It's essential that you order them before going to making the wood plates, because the size of the prints might not be exact what you ordered.

Be sure to not activate the image optimization your service offers! I made this mistake, so you can see color separations in the sky section when palm leafs are in the image. And better don't choose 'crop to fit'. If you get white boarders then, don't care - you can cut them away if needed.

I ordered prints in 15cm format, what means 15cm wide and as high as needed.
This ended up in 15cm * 11,4cm prints - We'll need this size in the wood part of this instructable.

...waitin' for the prints...

YAY! Here they are - time for the first laying out. Puzzletime! Mostly they are in the same order, as the files were, or there is the filename printed on the backside - this helps much to get the sky in the right order. Otherwise this would be very hard.

Got the picture correctly? Then write numbers on the back of your prints.
Just like:
1x1 ; 1x2 ; 1x3 ; ...
2x1 ; 2x2 ; 2x3 ; ...
and so on... not really difficult, right?!

done so far

STEP 4: The Wood Plates

Get the exact dimensions of your prints - mine were 150mm x 114mm.

Go to your local wood dealer.

I decided to buy a multiplex with 10mm thickness - this was too thick, because the whole thing gets really heavy at end.
5mm would also work and is cheaper, too.

I only had to pay the material, the cutting was free-service.
I think the cutting-guy hated me after I ordered 121 of these small plates ;) at least I would have hated me.

STEP 5: Preparing the Plates

drilling action!

OK, we need a little hole for the hooks at the left and right side of the plates.
If you don't drill the holes, the wood may spread by getting the hooks in, if you get them in at all.

I stapled the plates and measured the middle of the shorter side, then draw a pencil line along the staple there on both short sides. (goes much faster than mark each plate severally)

I drilled about 5 plates and decided then to make a stencil.

For the stencil I used a sheet metal laying around and a CD case. I cracked the case so that I got a nice arrester - then I drilled a hole in the metal sheet and fixed it in the right position on the CD-case-part with superglue. This worked fine for about 100 plates (200 drills), then it broke ;)

make them nice and smooth

After that I used a sandpaper-sponge to smooth the edges and faces.
To get the plates free from dust, I rubbed them on my carpet and used the vacuum cleaner. (don't let your mother see you doing this)

Still don't turn in the hooks - this will follow after the next step.

STEP 6: Prints on Plates

Write the numbers from the pictures at one side of the plates.

Then use the spraying adhesive to get the prints on the plates (read on the can, how to use the glue)
Be sure to not mix up the numbers, and don't glue the print on the side where you noted the numbers ;)

Do only spray a few plates at once, otherwise the glue will dry until you get all the prints on.

Press the prints on the plates until the glue is dry.

If you would have put in the hooks before this, they would get sticky now.
Now you can start turning in the hooks, be sure that they're all in the same position.
The pliers may help you getting them in.

STEP 7: Chains

Since this step, I wear a pair of this chains around my neck - for two years now :D

back to subject: The chains should be one which links can be opened with two pairs of pliers.
Lay out the plates in order you like to have on your wall later. Then lay a chain between each column and at the two outer sides.
Open 242 chain links now and use them to connect the chains with the hooks. Be sure to count the links between each hook, so they all will have the same distance.

wow, this is much work

STEP 8: Get It Nailed

Measure your wall to get the nails in the right position to hang on the upper ends of the chains.

The nails are in - get it up the wall - this gets tricky.

Attach a key ring to each upper chain link, then put the long bar through the key rings.
Now you can lift up the whole thing, but first call one to help you getting it on the wall.

You hold it there on the wall, and the other person puts the chain links on the nails.
Then just remove the key rings an your done!

congrats!

Comments

[uwe]

Thank you for this great inspiration.
I finished my palm meagposter curtain today.

Here some things i learned while building it:
- When ordering the chains be sure that chain links are not welded together (as you said ...)
- The wood plates should be thick enough (10 mm is much better the the 6-7 mm i got, again as you said ...)

[abstracted]

tried three times to show my 2 year old version of your awesome creation. its all done in certificate sized frames..the hard part was hanging them individually and keeping them level and spaced evenly.

[TheCheese9921]

this is sweet, I wanna make a giant me, I shall call him biggy me

[prodigous]

I made this using rasterbator brfore i read this.

[Ellavemia]

It's a lot easier to make if you just use the RasterbatorRasterbator. I had a couple of them hanging in my home for a while.

[Stikk]

Firstly, must say, love this idea, it's fantastic! I have a few questions, though, because I am thinking I might do this to my wall in my new apartment, there's nothing on it yet.. Here we go: 1. What was the resolution of the file you originally used? 2. I couldnt find this "rasta filter" in GIMP anywhere, does anyone know where it is? (Yeah, I dont do a lot of photo editing, can ya tell? :-P) 3. How did you keep the picture looking vibrant and colourful like that? I tried that rastabator program and it just sucked all the colour out of the photo I was trying to use.. I put it on full colour, obviously, but it ends up looking washed out and the photo I am trying to use relies on being very colour rich.. Does anyone know what settings it would be best to use for that program? Thanks in advance for any help anyone can provide, I think this looks really cool and I would love to use it to spruce up my room a bit! :-)

[kiwisaft]

1. It was a normal Wallpaper size, I don't know exactly but not more than 1280x... 2. I really don'T like GIMP, so I don't know ;) 3. I don't know if this is the trick, but I overlayed the unrastered resized pic with some opacity over the rasterized pic. Because only resizing will cause bad quality and rasterized looks not so good. both together are fine ;) I tried rasterbator a long time ago, when it only made b/w rasters, so I also don't know.

[GorillazMiko]

awesome!

[destructopop]

Everyone seems to have comments about eliminating the boards and chains, but I love the modern warehouse-y thing going on with that and wouldn't eliminate them for the world. O_O

[micropreemiemommy]

I saw this website on another project and I thought I'd share it for those who are like me and want it easier and faster ;)
http://www.blockposters.com/

[trebuchet03]

Even with 512 ram.... doing those operations on the entire image would have worked out just fine... It's really not a matter of capability -- it's a matter of time. It will seem like it's taking a long time to do the entire image, but it takes at least that amount of time to do any operation on 121 images, 121 times plus the time it takes to start the process on each image :p If you're worried about time -- start it in the evening and come back in the morning :p I've done this on a machine with 384MB ;) The machine just sends a lot of data to your page file. To speed things up... If you can, use a separate hard drive as your scratch disk (for those using photoshop). Even if it's just a USB plug in type ;)

[ruthannalston]

They also have the photo paper now that you can stick it to something and it is removable so it won't tear wallpaper or paint. This would eliminate the need for boards and such on the back and the chain, but require you to use a lazer level to make sure and get your lines even.

[emery683]

so how much does it cost to buy all the materials?

[dkrmwiz]

very cool! me likes it!

[pumpkinbear]

This is such a great idea! I'm definitely going to make one for my bedroom, too. I'm wondering, though...Instead of being backed with wood and hooks screwed into the wood, do you think it would work if I backed the photos with something lighter, like cardboard or foamboard, and then punched holes and put in jumprings instead of the hooks? I'd like to reduce some of the weight here, because my walls are crap.

[kiwisaft]

thanks :) everything might work if it holds together. you could just try several materials with one piece, weigh it and multiply by the rows you wanna have, add the weight of 2 chains and then you have the weight which the hooks or something have to hold.

[oddree]

This would come out really smoothly if you framed them all. But that could get expensive really fast. They sell glass and pine wood frames at the "dollar store", but they really look like they came from there. The simple wood and chain mounting job looks pretty elegant! Nicely done!

[kiwisaft]

hmm I would be afraid to sleep under 121 glass frames ;) (me never trusts glass) but also a nice idea which is worth tinking about. and thanks :)

[oddree]

:-D Good point. I forgot it was over your bed. Nevermind about the glass.

[joejoerowley]

I always use rasterbator. It creates a pdf. You can do it online or download the program itself.