DIY Wood Plate Rack

by Pallet and Pantry

5 Materials

4 Hours

Easy

Display pretty plates or easy access for every day ones with this simple DIY Wood Plate Rack!

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Do you need extra storage? Or maybe your tired of going in and out of your kitchen cabinets to grab your every day dishes like I was. Whatever the reason this basic wood plate rack is the perfect solution!

To create this simple plate rack you won't need a lot of materials. You can find the full list of supplies and material here. To start you will need some scrap wood cut and dowels cut to size.

I purchased 3/8" x 48" dowels so I used a handsaw and cut them down to 12" in length. You will need 14 at this size.(These will hold your plates) I also needed two cut to 5 1/2" that will be used to attach the two base pieces together.

I cut my scrap wood for the base of the plate rack into (4) 3/4"x 1 1/2" x 13" pieces. Then it was time to measure and mark the top two pieces for the holes to place the dowels in. I decided I wanted my rack to hold six plates, so I needed a total of 7 holes on each side. For the top dowels, I measured 1 1/4″ in from each end and marked. Then I measured 1 3/4″ spacing for the remaining holes. For the side dowels: I measured in 2 1/2″ from each end.

Then I used a 3/8" drill bit and drilled my holes on both top pieces and also the sides of the tops.

Once I had all the holes drilled, I grabbed some sandpaper and sanded down each dowel and all the base pieces to get rid of any sharp edges. Then it was time to glue the base pieces together.

I glued one of the top pieces (with holes) to one of the bottom pieces (no holes) and repeated with the other side. Then I clamped them together and allowed the glue to dry. (About 1 hour)

When that dried I began glueing the dowels into both the two side holes and all 14 of the top holes. For the top dowels I used a rubber mallet and gently tapped them in so they were solid and secure. Then I allowed those to dry for another hour. If you're fine with the wood look (depending on the wood you used) you could be done at this point. But since I used scrap wood I decided to paint my plate rack.

I gave the entire plate rack two coats of white paint and when that dried I also sprayed one coat of clear to protect the paint from chipping.

We now we have much easier access to our every day plates as well as, more storage in the cabinet where they used to be! Since had all of the materials except for the dowels the total cost for this DIY Plate Rack was about $5! You can find the full tutorial in the link below!

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1 question

Diane on May 27, 2022

Why would you glue two pieces of wood together why wouldn’t you just get a piece of wood that was the right size??

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4 of 20 comments

Im832600209 on Aug 12, 2022

Your plate rack is really nice and would be very helpful when having a brunch or other gathering. I love it. Easy, elegant and well explained. Good job!! ❤👍

2 Reply
- Pallet and Pantry on Aug 12, 2022
  
  Thank you so much!!!🥰
  
  1
Lal92049631 on Jun 16, 2024

I have used this exact concept to make a “storage unit” for the lids to my pans. I hated going into my pots and pans pull-out shelf and the lids having to be moved to get at a certain pan. So, I measured the width of the inside of an upper kitchen cabinet and cut my “stand”” or frame” boards 1” shorter (1/2” on each end). I counted the number of lids and added 2, then I divided the base by that number to determine where to drill the holes for the dowels. The reason for adding 2 is because I needed to account for space for the handles on the lids. It fits perfectly and the lids are handy and no fighting to get a specific pan out!

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- Deanna Maidwell on Jul 08, 2024
  
  Do you think there’s a way to make this so you can pull it out of the cabinet? I’m having some physical things pop up and bending over has been causing a lot of issues, so I was thinking plate/pot rack that pulls out of the cabinet that’s not sitting directly on the bottom shelf, sort of like the pull out shelves…. This is an awesome idea to make it instead of buying it though!
  
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