Here’s the dilemma that we had with the Nanoleaf Aurora. How do you move the Aurora around? When we first got it, we were excited to put it up so that we could use it. But how were we suppose to see it in action in other rooms? So we decided to take our limited handyman skills and come up with a half-decent looking solution. Here’s what we came up with!
How easy is it to make your Nanoleaf Aurora portable?
Spoiler alert! It’s quite easy!
Attempt #1 at making the Nanoleaf Aurora portable.
Our first crack at the portability problem was to use 3M Command strips on the back of the Aurora panels rather than the included double-sided stickies. The downside to that problem was the amount of 3M Command strips we would have needed to mount in four different rooms for our Nanoleaf Aurora vs Philips Hue Comparison. In our opinion, the Nanoleaf Aurora will go wherever a picture goes and in our review home, we’ve already have a ton of hanging pictures so we figure we try to hang the Aurora and as you can tell, it’s been a success!
Here’s what you’ll need:
- 1/4 inch 2ft by 4 ft white vinyl handy board ~ $13
- At least 20 medium sized 3M Command Strips ~ $15
- Nailing strip (or a thin piece of wood about 3/4 thick) ~ $1.50
- 20lb Hanging Kit (we used a 30lb kit) ~ $8.00
- Wood Glue
- Screws/Nails/Staples (something that is longer than 3/4 inches)
In total, this setup is going to cost about $40 dollars which isn’t too bad considering we’ve mounted it in 4 different places already for the review video. We were initially concerned that the setup was going to look out of place but the Aurora draws the eye from from the white handy board. The pastel color scheme in our review home also worked well with the the white handy board. Again, check out this video to see how everything looked.
Get your own Nanoleaf Aurora on Amazon (CA/UK/DE) or on eBay!
Step #1
Glue the cedar nail strip to the back of the white vinyl handy board. For our Nanoleaf Aurora portable hanging unit, we placed the cedar strip 1/3 from the top of the handy board. If we were to do this again, we would glue it closer to the middle of the board. We’ll explain below.
We found a cedar strip with the least amount of warp to it but still used clamps along the edges of the strip and a weight in the middle to ensure a solid connection.
Step #2
Cut each 3M Command strip into 1/3’s!
As the glue dries, you can start attaching the 3M Command strips to the Nanoleaf Aurora panels. We could cut a regular strip into three thin strips and still have the panels feel solid on the hanging base.
In fact, we were able to get away with using two, 1/3 strips but found it difficult trying to figure out which panel goes where after taking it all down. Use three, 1/3 strips per panel to keep it simple.
Step #3
Make sure you’re drilling into the cedar nailing strip
Once the glue dried, we pre-drilled three pilot holes in the front of the panel along the cedar strip. We were unsure of how strong the glue would be so these screws were to ensure everything fit tightly together.
The screws we used were a inch long which meant it didn’t poke out the back of the cedar strip which was nice. We had our Dremel ready if this was the case.
Step #4
We used a 30lb hanging kit BUT the entire setup was only 15lb.
Attach the picture hanging kit to the base along the cedar nailing strip. Follow the instructions of the kit that you bought.
With everything installed, our hanging Nanoleaf Aurora portable unit weight approx. 15 lbs so our 30lb picture hanging unit was overkill. We will note that we only used a 9-Panel Aurora so if you go with more, it will add on a bit of weight.
Step #5
Honestly, how many ways can you mount a bunch of triangles?
Mount the Aurora panels onto the hanging base. Choose your design and mount away!
The only issue with our setup is the 2ft by 4ft panel since it doesn’t easily allow for more than 10 panels to be mounted easier.
Step #6 – Optional
Because scratched up walls just suck
To ensure we didn’t scrap up the wall, we added a felt pad to the bottom of the hanging unit. We also covered the picture hanging hardware with felt pads as well to prevent any scratches from happening to our painted wall.
Again, our biggest gripe about our portable Nanoleaf Aurora hanging unit was where the nail strip was located. If you place it closer to the middle of the handy board, you can easily hide the picture hanging hardware from plain sight. Our implementation required several attempts to tighten the hanging wire to ensure the nails in the wall were hidden.
We hope our step-by-step instructions to help you make your Nanoleaf Aurora portable. If you liked this post and are considering getting some for yourself, check out our links to purchase your products. Let us know if you have any comments or questions in the comments below!
