I collect beer coasters (among other beer accoutrements) and I recently completed a project to display a bunch of them nicely in frames on my walls. Here are some of the things I learned along the way.

I decided I would uses some sort of glue dots to stick the coasters onto a nice artsy textured paper background. They were able to fit depth-wise in any frame (except for the really tall ones).

I first tried “removable” glue dots because I wanted the coasters to be repositionable (without damaging the coasters that were really rare) as I expand my collection. Within an hour of being hung on the wall, some of the coasters started falling down. Even plenty of the coasters that I had put 2 glue dots on. Furthermore, within a few days, removing the dots from the coasters ripped parts of some coasters.

Unfortunately, there is no type of glue dot that is able to both support all the coasters and not damage any of them.

I then used “poster” glue dots (2 per coaster), and after a week, they seem to be holding well. I know they will take some damage on the coasters and the background paper when I have to move them, but I’m relying on that being rare enough that it’s ok.

For more pictures (including the 2 other framed sets), see my flickr set.

Someone at the craft store suggested another option that I could have tried. He suggested using L-pins or L-screws to simply hold up the coasters, and drill them into a 1/2” thick foam board backing. The foam board fits because most frames have a second channel 1/2” further back from the main edge that you latch the poster backing onto. I could also use the same artsy paper between the coasters and the foam board. This method would definitely not damage the coasters and would leave them basically repositionable, but I decided it was more work than I wanted to continue investing in the project. If anyone out there tries this, I would love to know how it goes.

Have you mounted coasters or something similar in a frame in another way? Please email me – pbarry at this domain.