I follow 6 simple stages to build a paper stretcher that doubles up as the painting board too. If you mount a tripod quick release nut on the back of the MDF board it will also fix easily to your tripod for outdoor painting! You don’t have to use MDF board but I found this was light and easy to cut and work with. You can use thin plywood or even gator board for this if you have any!

My goal here was to make something on a limited budget that was both simple to build and yet practical to use and that would last me a while once built.

I found that I could get the wood as offcuts from my local hardware store for next to nothing so these boards became easy, quick and very cheap to build. I have built one for each size of paper that I like to use both imperial and metric so 6 in all and I built the whole lot in less that a day and it didn't break the bank!

Here are the 6 stages you need to follow to construct a stretching/painting board:

Stage 1

This image shows all of the required pieces to complete the stretching board. On the left are the precut strips of sandpaper. I would recommend that 60 grade sandpaper is rough enough for this job. Any rougher than that and the damp paper can become embedded into the sandpaper surface leading to tearing when you come to remove the painting from the board.

At the top of the image are the precut wood strips which are flat underneath and have rounded corners on the top edges. The long pieces go all the way across the longest edge of the board and the shorter pieces fit between them so that the retaining clips are fixed on at the sides rather than top and bottom, as you will see later.

Stage 2:

Here you can see that I have glued the sandpaper strips to the board itself. The other option is to glue the sandpaper strips to the underside of the wooden strips instead, this leaves the board as a clean and unspoilt board if so desired.

If you prefer you can staple the strips to  the board  – this is a good option and allows the sandpaper to be easily replaced if needed further down the line. You will need to make sure that you place your staples about an inch 2.5cm apart to stop the sandpaper from being pulled off the board when the completed painting is removed.

Stage 3:

This image below shows how the wooden strips are arranged on the painting side of the board. You now have the choice of attaching some pieces of webbing to these wooden strips so that they become an integral part of the board or just have them loose ready to clip into place.

If you do want to attach them to the underside of the board using the webbing, then the next step shows how I accomplished this.

Stage 4:

This view shows the underside of the board with the webbing strips in place and stapled into position. This is a simple process if you have a stapler that opens out flat so that you can use it like a staple gun driving the staples directly into the MDF board.

I like to attach my wooden strips in this way as each set is cut specifically for the board they are used in conjunction with. When you have a few of these boards lying around I found that it is good to keep everything together in this way.

It is also easier to attach the wet paper to the board when the wooden strips are attached to each edge of the board like this.

Stage 5:

The image below shows the board as you normally view it with the sandpaper strips in place and the wooden strips laying flat and ready to fold onto the top of the board over the wet paper.

You can clearly see the sandpaper around the edges of the board.

So at this stage you would wet your paper either by placing it in the bath or sink and running water over it for about 2-4 minutes until it feels quite floppy.

I prefer to lay the paper reverse side up flat on the prepared board and using a mop brush thoroughly wet the surface.

I normally wait a minute or so to let the water soak into the paper then I wipe off the excess and turn over the paper and wet the top surface in a similar manner.

Stage 6:

After another minute or so, when the paper has absorbed the water, check that it is all evenly damp and then you are ready to fold over the wooden strips and fix the clips.

This image shows the clips in place and how the top and bottom wooden strips fit around the side strips allowing the clips to hold both in place at each corner.

After another couple of minutes if the paper cockles slightly release the clips, refit the paper pulling it gently onto the sandpaper strips and replace the wooden strips and clips once again.

Now you can either wait for the paper to dry naturally or use a hair dryer to speed up the process which is what I normally do.

The whole stretching process is simple and straightforward and the thin wooden strips do not impede the painting process at all. Once the painting is finished and dry removal is simple too and the paper will be completely flat and ready for framing.

I hope you like this idea and find it as useful and reliable as I do.

If there is any part of this process you don’t understand then I will be happy to try to explain it more clearly for you. Send me an email, you will find an email link button just under my photo on the home page of this website.