How to do Clipboards in a Rental Home

INSIDE : Creating a beautiful home should be attainable even if you don’t own your house. Learn how to do clipboards in a rental home for an easy way to display art, keep yourself organized or get papers off your desk!

Clipboards on Cement Wall

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I’m so excited to share that today is my first Rental Home post!  

As some of you may know, we just made a big move across the country from the sunny Desert to the green Midwest.  We are only here in the Midwest for a few years and then will be heading back to the southwest, so we decided a rental home was our best option.  

Today I am sharing a quick DIY that I put together down in our basement.  And I had to take my project one step further because we have cement block walls in our basement.

What supplies do I need to hang clipboards on a wall?

Clipboards
Tall + Thin piece of wood trim
Three short nails
White Paint
Hot Glue Gun

Clipboards Rental Wall supplies


This was such a simple project and it made such a big difference for me in my daily use of the office space!  As I mentioned, we are renting this home for two years so we can’t make any major changes or impacts to the home.  

My new craft and office space is in the basement.  I am so thankful for bright white walls down there, but they also are concrete block… with a lot of texture.  It’s definitely possible to nail or screw things into concrete, but I’m not so sure my landlord would appreciate that!  So, I got creative with the easiest idea on how I could hang my clipboards.

How to hang clipboards in a rental

First, I painted a small wood trim piece about 6′ in length with a couple coats of white paint.  After the trim piece was dry, I held it up behind my desk to measure the spacing I would need to hang three clipboards.

Measure and mark where you want each of your clipboards to hang on the trim.

Clipboards on regular dry wall-

If you are securing clipboards to regular dry wall you have a few very simple options.

  • First, you can use only command hooks.
  • Second, you could simply nail the wood trim right to the wall with just a few small nails. Those can be easily patched when you move.
  • Or third, you could add the nails for the clipboards right to the wall.

Clipboards on cement block-

Since I was just using three clipboards and nothing heavy, I didn’t want to use nails on the cement block wall as that would have created quite a large hole. My wood trim piece actually was very snug in place between the floor and the ceiling and even with the weight of the three clipboards, it didn’t fall over. But for extra security, I added a few spots of hot glue to either side of the trim.

The hot glue simply kept the trim from moving side to side with weight. My desk was positioned also right in front of the trim, so that probably helped some as well.

Once the trim was up on the wall, I hammered three small white nails at each location of my clipboards.  

Clipboards Rental Wall steps

Removable Clipboards on a rental wall

I’ve been so pleased with how this turned out!

Clipboards Rental Wall zoom


I had originally thought about using command hooks, but I don’t believe they would have worked well with the heavy texture of the wall.


Clipboards Rental Wall zoom2
Clipboards Cement Wall


I am really loving my little office workspace.  I’ve been working feverishly getting everything setup, organized and of course pretty.

Clipboards Rental Wall detail
Clipboards Rental Wall overall

My crafting nook is the last space in the house that I setup and with it pretty much done, I am so happy to say I feel like I can start getting back into making mode!  #makersgonnamake

Clipboards on Cement Rental Wall


Are you in a rental home or apartment?  Have you overcome any rental related struggles?  I have all kinds of little ideas like this coming up in the near future!

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12 Comments

  1. I’ve been wanting to hang clipboards at work so the kitchen staff has a clue as to what is coming at them in catering for the week. I think your idea will work out perfectly, thank you!

    1. delineateyourdwelling says:

      Oh so glad to hear, Monica! That’s a great way to use clipboards. Thanks for sharing.

  2. I’ve been using clip boards as well in my rental home. It’s a lot easier than trying to put up things that will put major holes in the walls beyond repair! I’ve painted mine fun colors and geometric shapes which is always fun too! Love all of your small pin wheel-esque decorations around them too! 🙂

    1. delineateyourdwelling says:

      Ah, love the idea of painting clipboards fun colors! I use washi tape on a few of the ones I have in other rooms.

  3. Hello from the blog hop! These are great! I always use clipboards at work, and I’ve taken to using them to decorate around the house as well!

    1. delineateyourdwelling says:

      So great, clipboards are like my solve all!

  4. Very clever! Are you sure there aren’t wood pieces along the top of the wall that you could nail your trim piece too? My last house had cinder block walls in part of the basement and there were wood pieces along the top.

    I love how the clipboards look!

    Tania

    1. delineateyourdwelling says:

      I wish, Tania! The basement is fairly unfinished so their is just exposed ceiling that goes straight to cement block wall. Thanks for the tip, though. =)

    1. delineateyourdwelling says:

      Thanks ladies! =)

    1. delineateyourdwelling says:

      Thanks Bre! =)

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