INSPIRATION BOARD OR ART?

We have quite a few inspiration boards at our house.  Today I want to show you four boards which are in our guest room.  I've posted about these before, but to quickly get you up to speed.....these were found objects, metal shelves to be exact.  If you look closely you can see that they have small holes all over them....drainage perhaps?  Air flow?  Not a clue.  Anyway, Braxton brought home 13 of these babies, and they have changed my life.

We have hung all four side by side above the bed, to make one really long inspiration board.  Each board measures 2ft. X 3ft. and we have hung them portrait style.  Originally they were a dull industrial gray and had some sort of sticky residue in places, which required sanding.  We then painted them a gorgeous blue which actually has more purple in it than you can see in these pics. 
Because it was important that the finish be durable (these guys get plenty of use) we chose an oil based paint in a high gloss finish.  I put them outside to dry (it was the middle of summer) which took a full four days!  Oil paint is a pain in the ass, but totally worth it.

Notice all the tiny holes?  Huh?

While we have other boards around the house which we use for design ideas, business if you will,  these four boards are used primarily for fashion ideas, or fun!  Braxton never uses these, so I get to make fashion collages to my hearts content.
Lets talk magnets........

These are the four types of magnets we use on our boards.  The one on the left is a plastic handled magnet you can find at any office supply store.  These are actually my favorite because they are so easy to grip.
Next is a black ceramic magnet.  Not my favorite because they get your fingers dirty and the ceramic against the metal is truly loud.
Next is a ceramic magnet that we made a little project out of.....first we found wee pictures in magazines (which took quite a while, let me tell ya) then glued them to one side of the magnet.  We then glued a glass glob (found at any arts and crafts store) over the picture, which has a slight magnifying effect.  We actually made bunches of these one snowy day, because that is what design nerds like us do for fun.
Next, and last, look very very closely, is a teeny tiny shiny metal magnet, and omg is this sucker strong.  Love these!

Does anyone know where I can find more of these?  These are left over from our eldest daughter's  senior art show at UVA.   To display her art, she nailed tiny nails, with tiny heads, until the heads were flush with the wall.  Using the nail heads as a surface for the magnets to attach themselves, she was able to safely hang her very delicate art.  It was brilliant.

One of the things I love most about inspiration boards, is it gives me a reason to use these.....

You know you saved all your old copies of Domino, am I right?

Just because I think they're so beautiful, I wanted to show them naked.  Inspiration board or art?  Both, I'd say.

Have a beautiful day.
YANCEY