The History of Grid Wall
Grid Wall has been in use since its manufacture in the early 40’s or so. It was designed to be a lighter weight material for shop fitting and store fixture and provide a more versatile adaptation to walls already in situ. It looks much cleaner and fresher than perforated hardboard and gives the illusion of more openness – for that reason, it’s best placed against clean walls. It’s also the common choice of artists and other people who travel with their wares to set up at fairs and workshops – it’s lighter and more easily transported than hardboard or other counterparts, and is designed to be freestanding or attached to a wall. It can be used covered or uncovered, but is very difficult to decorate once produced – unless you’re able to paint very accurately, without drips, you’re stuck with the colour you bought it (most commonly silver) or you’ll need to cover it. Once covered in fabric, for example, you can poke holes through to the underlying grid, and attach hooks etc.
Where Grid Wall is used
Most commonly used as a shelving construction material, it can also be used in shops to line walls, and allow the hanging and use of hooks, bars and more. It can be arranged as if it were walls; in Z shaped arrangements and shelves or tubs attached to two walls that meet at a 90 degree angle, or be designed into boxes or rectangles, freestanding in the middle of a display, allowing for a more versatile design. It can be covered with fabric, allowing an almost canvas like feel, and can also be used to enclose products. As it is so light, in the middle of any geometric enclosure that you’ve made, you can also put lights, or other items. It can also be used to attach freestanding shelves to the wall, if you feel they should be attached – Grid Wall is the lightest of mesh walls, and therefore can even serve as reinforcement for a weak wall, behind a more permanent display.
Features and benefits of Grid Wall
Grid Wall is incredibly light – it is basically a mesh that you can attach things to – therefore, if you’ve got walls that won’t hold anything stronger, it’s a great choice – remember to calculate the weight of your other fittings and your products. In most cases, it can be attached to the wall, but be ‘free floating’ – that is, it can either stand a little way away from the wall, or be designed in such a way that it’s supported by the wall, the floor and the ceiling. It’s also one of the most creative solutions to shelving. It can be arranged in all manner of shapes, if you have the floor space, and can be used on a plinth or stand to create an eye-catching display. It’s easy to cut to size, simply clip with strong clippers. It attaches easily too – either with custom made brackets, or by simple ties. And it can be covered or uncovered, depending on your requirements.
It can even be used behind wooden or metal shelves, for more options when hanging, or simply as a decorative touch.
Grid Wall Or Square Grid Adaptors
Fixing plastic storage bins to grid wall has always been a difficult task, because there are so many types of square grid wall and the diameter of the wire varies. The distance between the wire is also a factor that varies greatly. So the design team at Slatbox came up with a revolutionary grid wall adaptor which allows any Slatbox including Storebox, Shelfbox, Cratebox, Popbox, Hobibox etc to be fitted with the use of an adaptor to almost any grid wall.
Our patented Slatbox™ squaregrid adaptor is perfect for integrating square grid and the Slatbox™ system. Slatbox™ can be used with pegboard, slatpanel, slatgrid, slatmesh and squaregrid.
Manufacturers of Grid Wall & Where Can I Buy It?
In the US, you can get Grid Wall from most reputable store fixture distributors one prominent one being Advantage Fixtures, a company based around selling grid wall and its supplementary hooks and additional products.
In Canada you can purchase Grid Wall from a store fixture distributor, Eddie’s Hangup www.eddies.com
You can also buy from SlatWallKing – www.slatwallking.com this site contains numerous options and ideas for the use of grid wall and other products.
In the UK you can get Grid Wall from most reputable shop fitting suppliers i.e. www.slatbox.co.uk and www.shopfittings.co.uk Crown Fitting or from Gridwall Direct or Caranaco
All these suppliers have a comprehensive range of products and services surrounding the provision of your materials, so you should contact them if you need customisation options.
Wholesale, you can investigate your options at Alibaba, this site contains wholesale options that allow you to order from anywhere around the world – make sure you’re aware of the conditions that are required for your order.
In Australia, you can purchase grid wall from mei+picchi or most other shop fitting supply companies.