There's a stretch of wall in my dining area that has been crying out for decoration for about two years now. Finally, I couldn't look at the blank expanse of wall any longer so I set about to fill it with something fun, colorful and art-y.

Creating the wall of plates in my dining room was inexpensive and covered a lot of space. And, aside from drying time between paint coats, it was pretty quick, too.

I started with eleven mismatched plates I picked up at a thrift store. First, I sprayed each one with primer. I'm a big believer in primer when it comes to spray painting, especially when painting an odd material like dinnerware. After letting the primer dry for a few hours, I sprayed one coat of paint on the face of each plate. I then let them dry overnight.

The next day I decided I'd probably need to paint the rim of the underside of the plates so that the original color wouldn't show around the edges. After painting the undersides, I flipped the plates and applied the second coat the top side of the plates.

When the plates were completely dry, I took them to the dining room and decided on a layout. I did this by laying the plates out on the floor before I started hanging them on the wall. Once I was satisfied with a layout, I started hanging the plates.

I originally thought I would need to buy eleven plate racks to hang them on the wall but then I came up with a better idea - eventually. First I tried to hot glue fishing line to the backs of the plates. Unfortunately, the fishing line was too fine and slippery for the glue so it wouldn't stay in place. Then, I hot glued twist ties to the backs of the plates to use as hangers. The twist ties were the magic solution!

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