want to hang plates on your walls….but don’t want to pay the high price tag of those little metal contraptions you get at the store? well, here is a way to make your own plate holders on the CHEAP. and when i say cheap, i mean…..basically free!! plus they are super easy to make.
this is how i hung the plates on my plate wall in my dining room. {for tips on designing and hanging your own plate wall, click here}.
when i decided i wanted to do a plate wall to show off my collection of white milk glass plates, i instantly thought of the major expense of purchasing those annoying little metal plate hangers from the store. UGH. soooo expensive! {and is it just me, but aren’t they kind of annoying? i swear i can never get them to hang straight} i looked into fabric hangers, cloth plate holders, and i either couldn’t find them or didn’t want to fork over left arm for them. amd then i saw how In My Own Style used paper clips to hang her plates. brilliant. {fyi her plates have hung with paper clips for the last 10 years} so i dug around my junk drawer neat and tidy desk drawer trying to find a handful of paper clips so i could make her handy little plate hangers……but then i remembered i had thrown out all of the paper clips when we moved this summer….. because i like never need paper clips……until now. argh. i couldn’t just go out and BUY paper clips. that defeated the whole purpose of the paper clip idea. then as i was putting the random bits and pieces back into our junk drawer {very carefully. so i could shut it}, i realized i had a bajillion safety pins laying there.
would safety pins work??
i had no idea. i thought about it for an entire day. i was skeptical and scared. i rather like my milk glass plates! i asked davis what he thought. after a short discussion, we decided to try it on the small plates in my collection.
i was scared. very scared.
this is what we did:
How to Make Your Own Plate Hangers
Supplies:
1 safety pin, per plate
super glue that is rated for glass {i used E6000}
fine grit sandpaper
1. first clean your plates so that all debris and dirty are removed. then dry thoroughly.
2. we then sanded a small circle on the back of the plate inside the ring about an 1″ or so away from the ring. {you only need to sand it for about 5-10 seconds. not much is needed} sanding the glass roughs up the pores of the glass to help make sure the glue adheres well to the plate well.
3. place a dot of super glue in the sanded circle.
4. then place the safety pin head {large metal part} in the super glue making sure that the bottom of the safety pin that has the little circle goes up and over the ring as shown in the picture above.
5. cover the head of the safety pin with more super glue so that you have glue on all sides of the safety pin.
6. allow to dry according the the label on your super glue. we let our plates dry over night. some actually needed a little longer partly due to our humid climate and also some plates had large blobs of super glue around the safety pin.
7. test to make sure that your pin will hold your plate. i recommend doing this over something soft. like a pillow on the floor. {just in case!}
as long as your safety pin plate hanger passed the test, you’re now ready to hang your plate!
***this may not work for large, heavy plates. my plates are saucers and salad plates up to 9″ in diameter.***
this is my plate wall! my plates have hung on the wall using safety pin hangers for over a month now and i haven’t had any problems! yay!
if you’re looking to hang your own plate wall and want to learn how to do it with only putting 1 hole in the wall per plate, click here.
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Ah, so easy! I have had on my to-do list to find a way to hang some plates passed down to me from my grandfather for months. The nails are even in the walls already! Thank you!
WOW! Thanks for sharing such a thrifty idea. I never would have thought of this.
What a great idea!!!!! I will sure put this one to use. Thanks!!!
Linda, I think that’s a great idea! I have also seen (on Pinterest) using the little metal tab off pop cans too. I totally agree with you about the metal hanger things – ick! Thanks for sharing!
That’s amazing! I just used E6000 for the first time and I am now addicted (a little high from the fumes too…but that’s a different story)!!! Thanks for sharing such a great (FREE) idea!!!
Great idea! The E6000 will hold FOREVER. I’ve used it to glue magnets to heavy ceramic designs with great results!
Kelly @ Creating a Family Home
Your “wall o’ plates” MAKES your dining room! Very cute!
thanks, rachel!!! :D that totally made my day.
i’m so glad you stopped by!
happy crafting,
linda
you can also use paper clips!!!!
I will definately have to try this! Last year around Christmas I had bought a set of shimmering red plastic charger plates at Target and wanted to hang them on my kitchen wall. Not having any plate hangers on hand I ended up using double stick tape (they were very light). They looked great on the wall, hung there all day and I was extremely happy, til that night at dinner one decided to come loose in the middle of dinner and WhaP! hit my daughter right smack in the head! I will definately be trying your tip!
Really great idea . . . and kind of spooky because I was JUST thinking “I wonder if there’s a cheap way to do that without buying those hangers” about 20 minutes before I saw this post! Perfect timing ;)
Oh jeeez… what a brilliantly simply idea. I used 3M wall hangy things that lasted until the humidity arrived here in MI. One morning I awoke to the sound of 3 of my vintage plates crashing to the floor. Aaack! After my upcoming move, I’m going to use this safety pin method to rehang my collection. Thanks for sharing!
oh no, michelle! how awful! i’m so glad you stopped by!
happy crafting,
linda
E-6000 is the BEST! I use it all the time.
it sure is!! love it!
thanks for stopping by, SuZann!
happy crafting,
linda
Wow.. what a great idea. I’ve wanted to hang a display of plates/baskets/etc on the bulkhead in my kitchen for a long time now, but I’m too “cheap” to buy the metal hangers that can ruin/chip your plates and wasn’t sure how I was going to hang the other stuff. Time to hit the thrift stores for my plates and other stuff and the dollar store for the glue, pins and sandpaper!!
i’m so glad you stopped by, kim! glad you found my helpful :)
happy crafting,
linda
I absolutely love your tutorials. Afer I see how easy it is to do some of the projects, I’m not so intimiated to try them and I do feel a little Martha Stewartish. LOL
I upholstered my dining room chairs using your tutorial and they came out fabulous! My husband asked me when I learned how to do that……..he’ll never know my secret. :)
Thanks for your wonderful ideas and tutorials!
So glad I came across your site before trying this on my own. It’s brilliant! :) I just bought some cute melamine plates from Target and am having some photo plates done. Hopefully it will look great in the kitchen. (At Target, I picked up the plate holders too but then put them back because I couldn’t stomach how tacky I pictured they would look.)
thank you for this awesome idea…like the use of safety pins ..genius!
Pingback: how to design a plate wall | Craftaholics Anonymous™
Talking about this super great methon on my blog today and giving you all the credit…it works so well!! Not to be all “look at my blog” but if you’d like to see how I used it, you can see here: http://preparingforpeanut.com/cheesy-easy-wall-art/
Thanks for this great tip! I’d NEVER have thought of it.
THANK YOU sooooo much for posting this. I can not even begin to tell you how many various sized vacation plates I have that are currently stored in a box in my basement. Now I can actually hang them in my kitchen like my Grand parents did in theirs :D
Awesome! Just the bold (and cheap) solution I was looking for! Lovely dining room- your milk glass collection looks fabulous.
Thank you, Patricia! I’m so glad you stopped by!
happy crafting,
Linda
What about using this on salt dough? My kids and I made my husband a salt dough hanging hand print and I haven’t found the right “thing” to hang it with.
I think it would work perfect for salt dough! May want to test on a small piece first to make sure the super glue sticks to the dough. Thanks for stopping by!
happy crafting,
Linda
Hello. Can I do the same thing here but use my hot glue gun for the glue?
Thank you!!
Hi Laurie,
Thanks for stopping by! Hot glue is not a strong enough adhesive. Super glue is a better choice.
happy crafting,
Linda
I’m not that much of a internet reader to be honest but your sites really nice, keep it
up! I’ll go ahead and bookmark your website to come back in the future. Many thanks
I’m a little late to the party, but I love this!malso, I love the wall color in this room. Do you remember what. Color you used?
The paint color is Graceful Gray by Behr. :)
Excellent! Thank you very much.
Hi Linda, It’s been almost three years since you’ve hung your plates. Have there been any accidents? I have a collection of GWTW plates that I love and I want to hang. I’ve used the old fashioned kind before, but I’d like to do something invisible. I, like you, am really scared. Thanks, Lori
Hi Lori! I totally understand being worried about it working. I have literally had my plates hanging this way for 3+ years now with no accidents or broken plates. I swear by it! I know it sounds scary, but it really works. Hope that helps! Would love to hear if you do it!
And when you’re fed up with your plate hanging on the wall and want it back on your table and want to remove the safety pin – then what ?!
Sorry to put throw some water on this plate hanging idea. Milk glass is very collectible and antique dealers are asking nice prices for plates, etc.
I wouldn’t take sand paper to the plate or a super glue that is not removable or can damage the plate while trying to be removed. Acetone usually works but if you have ever stuff your finger to something by accident you know even acetone is not always easily successful. If your item to hang is inexpensive and you don’t intend for it to be a heirloom then this method would seem to work great.
Unfortunately anything you attach to the antique may cause it to be devalued in the open market.
No, I do not have any idea to substitute. I am looking for a way to hang a wooden plate- as the tension ones may warp it.
The post above is a good question too -what to do when you are tired of it hanging up.
Hi Denise,
I collect the plates for decorating reasons. Their retail or antique value doesn’t matter to me as I don’t plan to sell them.
Anyone have any ideas how to make a hanger for a 4″ by 4″ glass and metal square? My grandson made this for me in class–it’s on the heavy side and I’d like to hang it so the sun can shine through it at a window and want to be sure it won’t fall out of any holder–I need something to hang from the rod or a screw into the sill at the top and hang down about 10 inches. Anyone have any ideas?
Try using a super glue/adhesive rated for glass. Then you could adhere a safety pin or even a soda can tab to it and hang it on a suction cup with hook.