DIY Plate Wall

Okay so confession: the walls in my house are bare.  I've lived in my house for over a year now and I have maybe like 2 pictures on the wall.  It is pretty embarrassing, especially considering that I have a shop based in home decor items.  One thing I did put up when I moved in, though, is this awesome cute plate wall in my kitchen.  I wanted something that would work well for the large wall space that I had in my kitchen but would also be subtle and modern.  One thrift shop trip later and voila! A fun plate wall that brightens up my kitchen.

This is the perfect project for the kitchen, or really anywhere else in the house.  It is so versatile because you can get any color combination of plates and arrange them in any crazy arrangement you want to!  I am sharing this tutorial because I learn a lot of DIY things the hard way, and for this project I tried like three different methods to hang these plates and get them straight (and I have the patched up holes in my wall to prove it!) So here is my method, I hope it works for you too!

DIY Plate Wall How-to

For this project you'll need plates, plate hangers (I got mine here at Hobby Lobby), a big piece of newspaper or tissue paper to create your plate layout on, a pencil, painter's tape, a level, nails, and a hammer.

First, wash and dry all of your plates.  Follow the directions on the plate hangers to attach them to the back of your plate.  On the type I bought, it said to get the back of the disc hanger wet and press it firmly onto the back of the plate.  Let them dry according to the directions.

Then create your plate layout paper.  If you are indecisive like me, this will be the hardest part of the whole project! Place all of your plates onto the newspaper or tissue paper using the top edge of the paper as a level edge (i.e. when you put the paper up on the wall, the top edge of the paper will be level and parallel to the floor.).  Trace around all of the plates keeping your pencil straight up and down against the paper.

In each circle I wrote down which plate it was, just so I'd have an easier time remembering my layout when it was time to hang.  Next, measure the distance from the top of the plate to the top of the plate hanger ring.  Using this measurement, make a cross mark in the traced circle where the hanger ring is.  

Using a level and painters tape, mark a straight and level line on the wall where the top of your layout paper will be.  You do this to make sure that when you hang up your layout paper (with all of the traced plates on it) it is straight and level with the ground.

Line up the top edge of the layout paper with the level tape line from the previous step. Tape your layout paper to the wall with painters tape. Hammer nails directly through the paper into the wall using the cross marks as a guide.  (You can see in this picture how I'm hammering the nail much higher than the cross mark.  This is because I marked the plate hanger loop on the layout paper, so when I nail this metal hook into wall, I want the hook to be at the same level as the top of the plate hanger loop.)

When all of your nails are in the wall, remove the painters tape and rip away the layout paper.  Hang up your plates and admire your hard work!