I recently built a plate rack on an awkward wall situated between our kitchen and dining room. I knew there had to be a way to make this wall functional and pretty, and after multiple searches online for pre-fabricated plate racks (too expensive or not the right size) I realized that the best option for me was to figure out how to build my own. Read below for my tutorial on how to build your own plate rack!
DIY Plate Rack
The wall is 32″ wide and all it housed was our thermostat and a smart home screen that we chose to not use (which I have now removed and have added a cap to cover the hole). There was not enough clearance to fit a piece of furniture, and the positioning of the boxes made it tricky to hang artwork that looked appropriate. I scoured Pinterest for inspiration and a little bit of instruction to help me get started, and then I waited 3 months to start because I was intimidated by the scope of the work. I’m quite handy and have tackled plumbing, vanity installation, and electrical projects numerous times, but I had never built anything from scratch before and the idea of it was really daunting! Here is what the blank wall looked like when we moved in, as well as a list of a few of the blog posts I referenced while planning my own plate rack:
One day while my husband was out of town on a work trip I finally decided that I couldn’t wait any longer to get started, and promptly pulled out the painter’s tape and starting planning my rack. At first I thought I’d make it the full width of the wall, but after playing around with the design a bit I decided that going 3 inches in on all sides (including top and bottom) was the way to go. Here are the various layouts I considered:
I didn’t want the rack to stick out too much so I opted for 1″ x 3″ boards, though if I had it to do again (or if you’re planning to do this and clearance isn’t a concern) then I’d probably chose 1″ x 4″ boards instead. If we hadn’t had the thermostat on this wall I may have chosen bead board as the backing, but in order to simplify things I chose to keep the wall as the backing. Read below for some very (amateur) instructions on how to build your own plate rack! All in all, this took about 5 hours to do on my own, but because I was solo parenting 3 children while I was working on this there was a lot of stopping and starting and I fit it in over a couple of days.
Here are the tools and materials I used for my DIY plate rack:
painter’s tape
pencil
level
orbital sander (I used 120 grit then 220. You could use regular sand paper but it will take longer to smooth out the boards)
saw or multi-tool (I couldn’t find our hand saw and we don’t have a circular saw- which would have been ideal, so I used our multi-tool)
carpenter’s square (if you use a multi-tool to help keep your cut straight)
4 – 1″ x 3″ x 8″ boards (Found in the lumber section of a hardware store. Buy more than you think you’ll need, just in case, because you can always return the unused ones. I used 2 for the verticals and then cut down the other 2 boards for the 5 horizontal pieces. Make sure to choose pieces that are not warped that are in good condition with few knots or chips.)
4- 5/8″ dowels (for the rails)
thin trim to create the “lip” of the shelf to keep things from slipping out
clamps (or chip clips work too!)
4″ wood screws for attaching the verticals to the wall
shorter wood screws for attaching shelves and dowels
caulk
liquid nails or wood glue (used to attach the trim to the shelves)
wood filler to cover the heads of the screws
primer (Zinzer)
paint (Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee in Eggshell)
Instructions on How to Build a Plate Rack:
1. Plan your layout with painter’s tape. Make sure your measurements are correct if you’re centering it on a wall, and make sure you have studs behind the vertical pieces.
2. Cut your verticals down to the size you need. Sand to smooth out. I used a multitool, pencil, and a carpenter’s square to keep the cut straight.
3. Before attaching to the wall I used a drill to drill through the vertical boards long-ways and once I had a pre-drilled hole I used the drill to then drill the hole into the stud. Then I used the level and the electric screwdriver to attach the vertical boards to the wall using 4″ long screws. I attached each vertical board to the wall using 3 screws, starting at the top. I tried to screw the screws in so that they were flush with the board to allow me to cover them up with wood filler.
4. Once the two vertical boards are attached, plan the spacing between your shelves, depending on how large the pieces are that you plan to store on the rack. Mine are roughly 25 inches apart and since the lumber is not totally regular you’ll want to measure the length each shelf needs to be based on exactly where they will be placed. On my plate rack there needed to be a half inch difference between the length of the top horizontal piece and the bottom horizontal piece despite using a level for everything, so just make sure you measure well prior to cutting your shelves and dowels!
5. I attached the shelves to the vertical pieces using screws drilled in from the outside of the sides of the rack.
6. Next, I attached the dowels 6″ above each shelf, also using screw from the outside of rack. In retrospect, I probably should have attached them a little lower (at about 4.5″) so that I could use smaller plates on the rack, but this height is great for tall or top heavy pieces. You can certainly play around with the dowel height on your own project.
7. To attach the thin trim (used as a lip to keep plates from slipping off) to the top edge of each shelf I used liquid nails and then clamped them while drying. I didn’t have any real clamps so used chip clips, which worked perfectly in a pinch!
8. I filled in most of the noticeable screw heads with wood filler, then sanded the top once dry.
9. I caulked (make sure it’s paintable caulk) all of the edges and the seams where the boards were attached to the wall to make it look like a truly built-in piece. Allow to dry.
10. Next, I primed the wood with a paintbrush.
11. Finally, I painted the piece with 2 coats of paint. I tried using semi-gloss at first but it felt too shiny, so I sanded and re-painted with eggshell and also painted our kitchen with the same paint (Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee in eggshell finish.)
12. Once dry, style with all of your favorite pieces! I used a variety of cutting boards, platters, and plates that had previously been hidden away in our cabinets.
We are short on cabinet space in our townhouse, so this DIY plate rack was the perfect solution to help us free up cabinet space while also creating a beautiful focal point in the heart of our home. I’m so happy with how this turned out! I plan to change it up seasonally and look forward to decorating it for Christmas! If you ever decide to build your own please tag me on Instagram or send me a message about it! I saved the whole planning process as a highlight on Instagram, and also put together a reel of the process of building it!
Note: I also ended up swapping out our basic thermostat for an Amazon smart thermostat that is sleeker that will also save us money. I installed it myself and it was super easy and now I can control the temperature with my voice through our Amazon Echo (Alexa). Here is a comparison of the old and new thermostats.
