Help Me Build a Freestanding Wall

March 30, 2009 3:01 PM

I want to build a freestanding (but not necessarily portable) wall in my outdoor/natural light photography "studio." Ideas?

Backdrop stands won't work for these purposes, because on a breezy day, my roll of seamless paper acts like a sail, and everything comes tumbling down (stands are weighted down, but the paper really billows with a decent breeze). I thought about building a makeshift climbing wall, but I can't really afford to lose 6-8 feet of space in the back for the braces (plus I'm not sure that I have that much carpenter in me!). My other thought was a commercial room divider (like they would use in offices/schools/churches), but that's getting into the $500+ range, and I'm not sure how well it would work anyway (I really need the wall to be flush with the floor. I'd like the wall to be about 7 feet high and 9 feet wide. I'll be clamping seamless paper, fabric, wallpaper, etc to it to make interchangeable backgrounds. I'm willing to throw a couple hundred dollars at this if I can come up with a good solution.

posted by swilkerson to Home & Garden (2 answers total)

How about an 8 in. × 8 in. concrete footing with 7 ft. tall bamboo poles stuck into it to form the wall. (You did say "not necessarily portable.") If that's too permanent, how about stick the bamboo poles into large (foot-high or larger) flower pots filled with sand. You could finish the bamboo framework to be more solid-looking with plywood or fiberglass sheets or something.
posted by XMLicious at 3:14 PM on March 30, 2009

Are you sure you don't just need more sandbags? Because a breeze should not be sending your seamless fluttering.
posted by bradbane at 4:14 PM on March 30, 2009