One Way To Display and Store Your Dishes

I have a moderate size kitchen. Not much in the way of counter space and no abundance of cabinet space. I’m not in the market for a new kitchen either, so I make due with what I have. Being creative with the space that I have is a must. One entire cabinet is devoted to my collection of Fiesta ware including cups, plates and bowls. I was thinking that there may be a way to move some of that out of there and open up some more space for other things.

I have a desk with cabinets above it at the end of the kitchen. It dawned on me that I may be able to store some of my dishes over there without causing any inconvenience. It’s located right next to the table so it seemed to be an ideal place to put them.

Here is what is looked like after I completed it.

I’ve seen these plate racks in newer kitchens and I love the way it looks. In my mind it seemed like an easy enough project to do. Two pieces of wood, cut to size and dowels also cut and spaced equally a part to make room for each plate. It wasn’t the easiest project to do especially if you are “math challenged” like I am, but in the end it worked out pretty well.

How I did it:
Supplies:

Pine wood
Wood glue
A bunch of dowels (they come 36” long)
Saw
Primer
Paint
Drill with drill bit the exact size of the dowel diameter

Cut two pieces of ½ “ pine wood to fit exactly into my cabinet. Sanded smooth, primed and eventually painted.

Enough dowels to cut and insert into the pine wood. I ended up cutting 32 dowels long enough to cover the height of my plates plus one inch. I used two dowels (one placed in the front and one in the back) for each plate separator. In the end I had 17 slots.

I clamped the top and bottom pieces of pine wood together. I drilled right through the top to the bottom, but only ½ way through the bottom piece. I marked my drill bit so I wouldn’t go all the way through. I then glued each dowel into the bottom holes. When the glue was all dried I placed the top on and made sure each dowel was in its designated hole.

The unit was built and then installed when it was all primed and painted. If you are good at math, this project is a snap. For me…………..well…….a little more a challenge, but I was happy with the results.
One tip……I made my dowels a little too close to each other and sometimes I have to force a plate into the space. Measure your plates carefully and allow for the contraction and expansion of the wood. Live and learn (from my mistakes).

I installed a little piece of molding along the front of the rack so the plates don’t fall out.

If you have an area in your kitchen where you can build on of these racks I can tell you that it empties out a lot of space in your cabinets for some more “stuff”.

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