PLATE RACK DIY

About four years ago I decided to add a plate rack to the back wall behind our kitchen table.   Prior to the plate rack, I had hung a large clock that came from our previous house, but it was just never the right scale. 

Anyone who knows me well, know that I have been collecting white dish ware since I was first married. There isn't a white jug, cake plate or platter that I don't admire. Having a plate rack would not only add decorative character but it would also be a perfect place to store some extra platters and plates I had on hand.  

To start, I looked up some inspiration pictures in magazines and on Pinterest like these.

The Remoldelista

Vintage house blog

Screenshot from Something's Gotta Give

                                                      
Next, I measured and basically drew out a sketch of what I envisioned and headed out to the hardware store. When I arrived home, with my supplies in hand, I sprung the idea on my husband.  It didn't take much convincing, he thought a plate rack would be a great addition and, together, we could build the plate rack ourselves. However, his agreeable position came with one condition, I must use things I already owned, I could not buy anything new to fill the rack. Agreed!

If you are at all handy and have built things before then with some planning I would give this project about a 5 out of 10 in its level of difficulty. In hindsight, I wish had taken pictures of the process when we were building it but, unfortunately, I wasn't blogging back then.

The process was basically:

• Build a rectangle from 3.5" boards. Just for reference mine is 52"tall x54"wide.
• Cut inside shelves and shelf supports to length. I have two shelves but I cut three to make a support for the top to have a piece of decorative trim and a larger sized topper. My board is 5" wide
• Put shelves through a router to cut out some basic grooves into the boards to give your plates something to rest in. I made two grooves because  have several different size platters.
• Put on your top piece then add the decorative trim mitering the corners.
• Making sure your shelves are perfectly level, attach each shelf and horizontal supports to the frame using both glue and a nail gun. 
• We then put on the front guard trim. I used pieces of decorative trim and inset these between the side panels.
• Next, I filled and sanded the nail holes, primed and painted the shelves.
• To attach it to the wall, we pre-drilled some holes into the support boards beneath the shelves. Once the screws were counter sunk, we used little wooden hole fillers and tidied it up with wood filler and did some paint touch ups!
• Below is a photo with the order in which I did things. 

         Voila! A custom plate rack! If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.

This is the order that I put the pieces together!

I am really pleased with how it turned out. While it looks great just as its plain self on an everyday basis, it is also fun to dress it up a little when celebrating special occasions. It is a great place to add a little color and whimsy in the kitchen and it's the perfect place to hang birthday banners and holiday garlands alike!


                     

Have a great weekend y'all,

Valerie xo

P.S. Sorry I just watched Nashville!