The Plate Wall: How I Did It

Now, on to the nitty gritty how-tos. I did a lot of messing off the wall, which totally paid off. My finished wall has one hole for each plate. :-)

First I collected all the plates I wanted to use. I laid them out on my unmade bed. I know, I know, such elegance. But I wanted a white background, and I didn't want chinking noises that would wake the napping Littles.

 

 

I knew that I liked the contrast of traditional looking plates in a freeform, modern arrangement. But my first effort was too far apart, and too close to traditional looking. So I tried again.

 

Much better with a little overlap hear and there, but the colors didn't look balanced. So I messed . . .

 

. . . and messed . . .

 

 . . . until I looked right. We girls are great at messing, aren't we? I took pictures as I went along, because I knew there was no way I'd remember what I had done. After I found my arrangement, I made little paper templates to tape on the wall.

 

And it's a good thing I did, because I made changing things very easy. I put everything up, and immediately decided the design needed to be flipped.

 

I wanted those two little plates on the end to lead your eye down the hall. With templates, all the adjustments were a breeze. I left the paper on the wall for a few days, just to be sure everything looked good. Then I started hanging.

That doesn't sound very good, does it?

 

I used these little guys for all but the lightest plates, where Kelli's idea worked beautifully. To avoid measuring (measuring should always be avoided, when possible) I rubbed some sidwalk chalk on the top of the hanger, then pressed the plate against my template. The chalk made a little mark, showing me where the top of the hanger hit, so I just tapped in a nail right through the template just under the mark. SO EASY!

 

So, there you have it, a plate wall made easy. Tune in next time to see the finished pictures and hear how my Husband saved my life. (Yes, it's all related.)