Hanging Decorative Plates For Less

Hi! I'm still laptop-less (phone typing) so forgive any typos or briefness.

After I bought my thrift store plates for $7, I had to figure out how to hang them.  The standard options run about $2.50 to $3.50 per plate and I have twelve plates. Which takes my thrifty shopping into less thirfty territory. 

So a look around the internet lead me to this.

Some permanent adhesive in the form of E6000 and some D-ring hangers. (Those are made to hang picture frames.) they can both be found at hardware stores. I got my D-rings at Lowes. They came in a pack of 4 and cost about $2.50. The glue cost about $3. That's not precise but after tax I paid about $12 to be able to hang my plates. (Not bad when previously I thought I was looking at like $35ish.)

The glue had fumes so I wore my paint mask. (Since I have the thing I wear it all the time. It feels wise.) And left them to dry in our sunroom (it sealed off from the rest of our house.)

I just put glue centered on the plate where the hanger would go and pressed the hanger down. To be extra sure I put a coat over the hanger and on to the rest of the glue. (Look at bottom right plate)

For my saucers, and more bowl like plates, I had the ring come out above the back rim. To give sufficient space.

The glue says dries in 24 hours but can take up to 72 hours for full bond streangth. So because the plates are heavy I waited the three (long) days.

I planned my layout and measured it all to get it very even. (Not fun but better than messy unevenness.)

Next I photo copied one of each type of plates' back to know just where the hook was at.

And nailed the nail there. (I made a tiny hole, then moved the photo copy before nailing, so I wouldn't  have to rip it - to save for find the other matching plates nail spots.) (I just ripped through the brown paper once I was done.)

And ta da!! It worked! I love it!

That's how you can hang plates for less-- but only if you are ok with permanently having a hook on the back. (Might not be an option for heirlooms.)

Ok now let's talk about my "eating area" space a bit.

I want to paint my side table and the mirror frame.

Reader Sadie mentioned the idea of painting the table a shade darker of that green on the plates. And I love that idea.

So here I go, over thinking. I still hope to use oil based paint on the table. (Doesn't matter for the mirror since it doesn't have things placed on it.) And Sherwin Williams had an oil based paint that you can tint (but apparently you can't do yellows because they don't work in oil based.) 

I couldn't find a green I could love inside my options. So right now I'm leaning towards "threshold taupe" a kind of light brown that's marginally grey, and vaguely purple hued. (Peek through the chair back at the swatch.)

And a soft kind of creamy,vaguely pink hued beige called "bungalow beige" on the mirror.

By the way, if this mirror was nice real wood I would probably leave it alone. But it's like a printed veneer that's chipping in some places.

Here  are the paint colors next to a few different parts  of the room. Its phone photos so it's not perfect, but they do color shift in person sort of as much as these photos.

So I'm feeling good about it, but will probably give it some time to make sure.

Here's some pics of how the room's coming together. I only have two chairs fully painted so far.

This is the fabric I bought for the seat covers. (Indoor outdoor again for durability. Bought with a 60% off coupon.)

The plan is to do piping the way the old seat cover was. (Hard to see under that plastic, but it's around the upper edge.)

 I'm liking these chairs a lot more than my old ones. I'm sure opinions will vary on that. But Blake and I really like these. And to my surprise my "all things pretty princess" lover Jasmine really likes them, and even more surprising she's started asking me to paint more chairs black because she likes that better. (So surprised on that one.) 

 I really like the more streamlined look and shorter back height of the new chairs --It makes the room feel bigger. Plus I like having sort of a boundary pushing conversation piece. These chairs are kind of a love it or hate it kind of thing. And as much as in normal conversations I cannot stand controversy, in design I get a kick out of hearing people's strong opions (or general questions) about something quirky in my space. It's kind of a fun get-to-know-you game built into my house.

I think in the end I'm really going to love this space. And even with paint and fabric these chairs are still coming to about $10 a chair. So I like that a lot too!