What Not to Do

What not to do when hanging plates on the wall...

I was inspired to hang plates in my dining room after seeing beautiful collage walls on many blogs.

Exhibit A:

the pretty girl painting & wooden wagon

My beautiful party girl painting did not seem to fit with my living room and kitchen decor. I purchased this painting when I first became a homeowner and no idea what my living spaces were going to turn into.  Needless to say, pretty girl had to go to the closet where she will retire until a new, more appropriate space presents itself. I also purchased the little wooden wagon at TJ Maxx last season.  This did not seem to work in this space either. The wagon has now relocated to the patio.

Exhibit B:

cheap plates

I found these plates in the clearance section of TJ Maxx for $2 each. I thought that was a decent investment for a plate wall that was going to look fabulous.

Exhibit C

the process

To begin, I traced the shape of each plate onto tissue paper so I have mock shapes to tape to the wall. This allowed me to get a visual of what the plates will look like before putting holes in my wall.

I also tried arranging the plates in several different patters on my floor to see what pattern will look the best.

 

 

I recently read on a blog that you could hot glue paperclips to the back of plates for FREE plate hangers. I decided FREE was definitely the way to go so I used this method. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of this process.

Once I settled on a pattern and adhered paperclips to the back of the plates, I taped the tissue paper shapes to the wall before I start nailing.

Exhibit D:

 the plate wall 

Here is a picture of the plates actually nailed to the wall.  Instead of using a center piece, I decided to go with teacups. 

Looking at the wall now, I'm not really excited about the strong symmetry.  It may be too uniform for my taste.

Exhibit E:

project fail

 I went out of town last weekend and came home to find all of the plates on the floor.  Some even broke.  I guess the FREE plate hanger method of hot gluing paperclips to the back of the plates does not work. 

Lesson learned: invest in plate hangers.

On another note, I'm looking for ideas on what to fill my basket with for the spring. My basket is currently filled with pine cones. 

Any affordable ideas are welcomed!

Please comment below.

 

Thanks for stopping by today!