Do you have an old set of plates lying around at home? Don't throw it away. Creative wall decoration,beautiful bed borderor functional storage space: We show how you can use old plates to create great unique pieces for the house and garden.
What to do with old plates? Make a cake stand out of porcelain dishes
The old porcelain dishescan be upcycled in many ways. No matter whether it's flea market finds or grandma's old tea set, with a little skill and a lot of creativity you can make a cake stand yourself. You need vintage style cake stand rods, a large and a small plate and a tea cup and saucer. How to build the cake stand:
- Clean all plates and let them dry. If desired, paint or spice it up with napkin technique. You can also use decoupage to hide stains, discoloration, or scratches.
- Wet the plates with gasoline and use a porcelain drill to drill a hole in the middle of the cup and plate bases. The hole should be large enough for the rod threads to fit through.
- Clean the plates and let them dry. Then put the cake stand together as follows: insert the cake stand rods through the holes and then twist them together.
Make your own wall decorations with old plates
The next thing you know with old onesplates can do, is a creative wall decoration. For this purpose, you can paint the porcelain dishes in any way you like. Both acrylic and special porcelain paints are suitable for this. In craft shops you can find paints that do not need to be baked. You can also find special porcelain brush pens in stores that are suitable for beautifying old porcelain cups. You can use it to paint small details or draw contours. If they are not baked, the porcelain colors can be easily removed with alcohol. They are not machine washable and weatherproof, so you can hang the plates on a wall in the living room, bedroom or kitchen.
If you want to hang a plate, you will need the following materials and accessories:
- Teller
- Safety pin
- Felt fabric or suitable backing
- Scissors
- Hot glue
Clean the plates thoroughly and let them dry. Close a safety pin and position it at the back of the plate. Glue the safety pin in place with hot glue. Allow the glue to dry for several hours and then check whether the safety pin can actually hold the weight of the plate. Then cut out a small piece of felt fabric and glue it over the safety pin. Then choose the appropriate spot on the wall where you want to attach the plates. To give you a better idea, you can cut circles the size of the plates out of cardboard and attach them to the wall with tape. Once you've found the right spot for each plate, you can mark the spot with a pencil. Then attach a hook into the wall. Make sure the plates will visually hide the hooks. Now you can hang the plates.
Alternatively, you can also use an adhesive hanger. These hangers are self-adhesive and allow for easy installation and straight attachment. They are therefore perfect for beginners.
What to do with old plates? Make a wall clock
Transform an old plate into a beautiful wall clock. You need the following materials:
- a medium to large plate
- a clockwork
- Safety pin, felt fabric, hot glue and scissors for hanging. Adhesive hangings are not suitable
- upon request: colors for painting and brushes
If you want, you can put the plate firstembellish with decoupageor paint it with any porcelain paint you like. After the surface has completely dried, you can use a porcelain drill to drill a hole in the center of the plate for the clockwork. Glue the safety pin, install the clock mechanism and the new wall clock is ready.
Use old plates as garden decorations: bird feeders
Do you have an old tea cup and saucer that is too good to throw away? Then you can put them in oneTransform bird feeder. You need the following materials:
- meal in Theta
- a saucer
- a feeding stick with hooks for hanging
- Hot glue
Simply stick the cup to the saucer so that the handle points straight up and then hang it on the stick. You can fill the cup and saucer with bird food every day. This craft idea has a decisive advantage: you can reach the bird feeder at any time and clean it or throw out old bird food and replace it with new one.
There is another variant. You will need a stick with a washer, a large plate, a teacup and a saucer. First insert the rod into the ground and then attach the large plate to the washer. Wait until the adhesive dries completely. In the meantime, you can stick the cup onto the saucer with the handle facing up. Then place the small plate in the middle of the large one and glue it in place.
Make garden decorations: flowers from old plates
You can make a beautiful garden decoration yourself from old porcelain and glass plates. You will need a large porcelain plate and a large, a medium and a small glass plate in the same color. You will also need a glass doorknob, hot glue, an adhesive holder for plates from the craft shop and a feeding stick with hooks from the garden center. Proceed as follows:
Attach the adhesive hanger to the back of the porcelain plate. Place the porcelain plate on the work surface and glue the large glass plate on top. Then place the other two plates on top and glue them together as well. Finally, position the doorknob in the middle of the smallest plate and attach it.
Repurpose old plates into bed borders
You can not only conjure up a garden decoration from old plates, but you can also make a beautiful flower bed border yourself. The porcelain tableware is only partially frost-resistant, so you can remove the plates from the ground at the end of the gardening season and store them in a dry place in winter. Next spring we can start designing the flower beds again. The quickest and easiest way to do this is to insert the plates halfway into moist, loose soil. This allows you to visually delimit the flower bed.
Make jewelry stands out of old plates
For the next craft idea you will need two vintage plates and the base of an old cake plate. The jewelry stand can be put together in minutes and you don't need to drill through the plates.
Make your own wall decorations from old plates
Create mix-and-match decorations and brighten up bare walls. You can combine plates of all shapes and colors as long as they all have a shabby look and are decorated with natural motifs. Animals, flowers and plants simply go well together.
Make wall decorations with old plates and blackboard paint
If the paint is chipped or cracks are visible, you can simply brighten up the plates with chalkboard paint. Not only do you have creative wall decoration, you can also write shopping lists, tasks and inspirational quotes on the plates.
You can also paint old metal plates with chalkboard paint and hang them up as a door wreath. Depending on the season, you can embellish the plates with natural materials, bows and decorative figures.
Amateur artists who have a painting talent can choose the next idea. First draw a motif on paper, divide it up, and then transfer it to several plates. Hang the plates so that the motif can be seen straight away.
Animal motifs are best suited, but they require previous knowledge, a sure hand and a lot of skill when drawing. Alternatively, you can opt for stickers that you cut into several pieces and then attach each piece to a plate.
Alternatively, you can also paint the plates individually. There are no limits to creativity. Floral patterns, animals, beautiful landscapes – depending on the size of the plate, you can conjure up different motifs. If desired, the motifs can pick up on certain decorative themes or colors from the interior.
A wall decoration made of old plates above the bed headboard also looks good in the shabby chic bedroom. Make sure the suspension is stable and the plates will not fall. Place the plates high enough to sit comfortably in bed. Choose white plates with subtle floral or nature motifs. Bold colors and complicated patterns have no place here. Instead, white, cream and pink ensure relaxation and convey a visual sense of calm in the sleeping area.
Decoration from modern dinner plates
Modern plates also get old and wear out at some point. But instead of throwing them away, you can turn them into beautiful decorative objects. Porcelain tableware that gives the impression of an old look fits particularly harmoniously into modern country house or industrial style interiors.
Hexagonal saucers can also set accents in a modern interior. First, paint them all white or another neutral shade of your choice. You can then quickly and easily paint geometric motifs such as triangles or stripes using gold paint and adhesive tape. You can then group the small hexagonal plates together as desired on the dressing table. You can use it not only as a decoration, but also to store small jewelry such as earrings and rings.
You can also draw simple geometric animal designs using a ruler and porcelain crayons in metallic colors. For this purpose, you can download a tattoo template, customize it and then transfer it to the plate with a porcelain pen. Or you can draw the motif freehand.
There are numerous ways to spruce up your home and garden with old plates. Be inspired by the suggestions and find a new use for the old porcelain tableware that has already become obsolete.
