Hanging a poster on a sloping ceiling

Magnets defy the unrelenting force of gravity

Submitted by: Andy Winkel, Lauterbach, Germany

Online since: 21/01/2010, Number of visits: 192437

Your super magnets have ended a long-standing fight against the laws of physics!

After moving into a new house, I found myself in a state of deepest despair: Several sloping ceilings directly under the roof made it impossible for me to hang my posters. Tape didn’t stick, glass fell out of picture frames (with considerable damage to the parquet flooring).

I finally had enough: I screwed six small drywall screws into the wall plasterboard where I wanted the poster to be, held the poster in front and attached it to the screw heads with six disc magnets type S-08-03-N.

What a dramatic difference! The posters are holding well, won’t be damaged and can be changed easily.

And even better: When the paper starts to get wavy due to high humidity and “grows” sideways (see picture), it is easily pulled tight again. The magnets won’t be exactly in the corners of the poster, a fact that doesn’t bother me in the slightest, because they are almost unnoticeable anyway. What’s more, my application is extremely low-cost and can be completed in no time.

Now the Queen Mary 2 can happily sail along the sloped ceiling

Note from the supermagnete team:
Instead of screws as counterparts, Mr Winkel could have also used magnetic bars or metal discs from our shop:

Attaching posters without drilling any holes

Addition from the supermagnete team, January 2026

The screw used in the customer project is made of metal and is therefore ferromagnetic. This makes it an ideal surface for attaching smaller neodymium magnets. The thickness of the screw head provides sufficient ferromagnetic force to hold the weight of the poster with magnets, even on a sloping ceiling. If you want to hang posters without drilling holes or using drawing pins, the method described above is a clever DIY alternative.

The trick to hanging posters without using drawing pins is to find a suitable surface for magnets that won't damage the wall. This is where paper clips come in. Paper clips are made of metal and are therefore ferromagnetic. However, magnets will not adhere to them very strongly because their material is so thin.

Take a paper clip and a piece of painter's tape or masking tape.
Press the paper clip into the centre of the tape.
Attach the strip of tape to the wall. There should be enough tape around the paper clip so you can press it down firmly. Let it sit for a few minutes so the adhesive can bond with the surface.
Now hold the corners of your poster over the assembly and attach it with a suitable neodymium magnet.

Important: We primarily recommend this method for hanging posters on walls, as the ferromagnetic force of the paper clip is too weak for use on ceilings or sloped ceilings.

To save space, whiteboards can also be hung on sloping ceilings using magnets. Find out how in our customer application A space-saving way to hang a whiteboard.