Diy home decor: covering your walls in jigsaw puzzles

Jigsaw fanatics can put together hundreds of puzzles in a lifetime, but never seem to know what to do with them afterward. Some people frame them or laminate them, but there are only so many places to hang or place the finished pieces, unless you decide to cover the walls in them. You can do one wall, one room or the whole house. Of course, it can't be done overnight, since you first have to assemble the puzzles, then affix them to the walls. If you want to do the walls quickly, but don't have the puzzles, advertise in the local paper that you'll buy completed puzzles. Many puzzlers have no attachment to the puzzle once they've put it together and will sell them cheap.

There are many different types of glue or adhesive that you can use to place the puzzles on the walls. Plain old white glue will hold well, but only after it dries. In the meanwhile, the puzzles tend to slide down the walls. Hot glue is fast, or use a quick-dry type of adhesive that is often available in spray form. The easiest way to treat the puzzle is to first use masking tape to hold the pieces together, then spray the adhesive and attach to the wall. Puzzle glue is also available and is spread across the back of the puzzle to hold it for crafting or framing. Even with quick-dry adhesives, it's still necessary to hold the puzzle in place temporarily, while it dries.

Since puzzles come in different sizes, and so do walls, it seems you'd have to be a mathematical genius to figure out the sizes you'll need as opposed to how much wall space you have. You might get lucky and the amount of square feet for the combined puzzles could be an exact match for the amount of square feet in your wall, but that's unlikely. What you can do is choose a theme for the wall or room, then get the puzzles together for that theme. The den could be done in an outdoor theme, with puzzles showing deer, squirrels, oaks, country homes and so forth. After adding up the lengths and the widths of the combined puzzles, split the left over inches between the top and bottom, and between the two side walls. Puzzles from over the years that were put together only to discover a missing piece, can be used to fill in the empty wall space. Choose pieces in a color that is predominant in the puzzles, such as browns, greens and tans. After placing the puzzles, glue the individual pieces on the remaining wall space. The spare pieces can also be used to cover molding and window sills. If you don't have spare pieces, paint the wall a coordinating color, then attach the puzzles.

Use character puzzles for a kids room, ocean view puzzles for the bathroom, or puzzles with fruits and flowers for a dining room. After hanging the puzzles, use a spray sealer to prevent the puzzle pieces from fading and peeling easily.

You can coordinate other things in the house with the walls. Do one wall in the puzzles, then do a coordinating headboard or framed puzzle over the bed. You could also cover the top of a scratched coffee table, re-do the mantel, cover a door, do just a ceiling in one room, or even do a floor. When using jigsaw puzzles to cover a floor, heavy lacquer will be needed to seal the floor and protect the puzzles.