DIY Plate Rack Wall

When we recently redid our kitchen, I left one wall blank because I knew I wanted a diy plate rack wall. These are great because they’re easy and affordable to build. A plate rack is also a nice way to display dishes when you don’t have much space. While a china cabinet is beautiful, it takes a lot of room. This felt like the perfect solution to display my wedding China.

how build a DIY plate rack wall

Let’s start with the video tutorial so you get an overview on what I did. Then, I’ll dive in with more details below:

If the video doesn’t work here, you can watch it on YouTube here. I’d be over the moon happy if you subscribed to my YouTube channel! Videos are actually released on YouTube first (usually the night before they’re published on the blog). Thank you!

SUPPLIES

24′ of wood 3 pieces (2.5″ wide x 8′ long)
4 Dowels (1/2″ x 36″ long)
Cup Hooks (7/8″ in white)
Screws

About $57 in supplies if you need to buy everything for this project.

Tools

build plan

For our wall (shown above), it worked perfectly to do 28″ wide shelves that are 48″ tall. Each shelf is 2 1/2″ wide. We are doing 4 shelves each 1′ high. Here are the build plans-

step 1

Start by figuring out how big of shelves you need. I’d recommend pulling out your plates or platters and measuring what size you need for what you have.

I pulled out all 6 place settings of my china and had fun arranging it so I could nicely show off every piece. These plates have been in boxes for 14 years and now that they’re going on display, I want to do it right!

If you’re wondering what my plates are, they are Vera Wang Lace by Wedgewood. They come in gold or platinum and are still available at Macy’s where I originally registered for them when I was married in 2007! I recently bought my 6th place setting from eBay which was $85 for one place setting (half the price of it new).

step 2

Next, cut your wood to the needed lengths. Here’s my cut list-

5 pieces cut to 28″ long (for the shelves)

2 pieces cut to 48″ long (for the sides)

4 dowels cut to 28″ long (for the rail to keep the shelves on the rack)

Use a table saw to cut the pieces to the correct width of 2.5″. This is not needed if you buy the wood I linked above. We used scrap wood so we needed to cut it down to size.

Finally, use a miter saw to cut the wood and dowels to the lengths on the above cut list.

step 3

And now, it’s time to put everything together! This is a pretty easy project because we cut everything with straight lines and then are using screws to attach it. I’d call this a beginner level project!

Since the wood shelves are somewhat thin, make sure to pre-drill the holes with a drill bit. Them, use a drill to put in the screw. I used two screws at every joint.

Quick construction tip- we use two drills when doing projects like this. One is for the drill bit head and one is for the star head for the screw. This saves quite a bit of time!

step 4

Once the frame was built, I brought it inside to test it out. Good news- the plates fit perfectly! I also held the dowel up to figure out how high it should be to hold the plate in place. 2″ high off the shelf was worked nicely.

My husband pre-drilled the dowel. He also pre-drilled the shelves. Then he used a screw to attach the dowel to the frame.

step 5

Finally, it was time to do the finish work. For that, I used wood filler to fill the screw holes. I did two coats of that. I also filled all the seams with caulk.

Once the wood filler was dry, I sanded the filled holes smooth.

Last, I painted the whole thing white. It took three coats of paint to get it perfect. I used Sherwin Williams white paint off the shelf. It matches my cabinets perfectly.

Here’s the plate rack all completed! It’s simple, but will serve its function perfectly.

To attach the rack to the wall, screws were used to connect the sides of the rack to the molding. I didn’t want to put holes in the tile, so this worked nicely.

For the cups, we screwed in cup hooks.

Then I filled the holes from installation and painted them to blend in. Ready to see how it turned out?!

after

Here it is! All my pretty wedding China on my new DIY plate rack wall! This means a lot to me. For so long, these sat in boxes. And now it’ll be so easy to use them for fancier meals.

It does make this room a little more busy. Which, let’s be honest is the last thing this room needs. But I love having them out and where I can see them! I think the platinum design looks so pretty on the subway tile!

It was a very simple DIY and I love how it looks. Now who wants to come over for a fancy dinner?!