Melamine Plate Wall

I have been looking at dining rooms a lot on Pinterest because I have been informed that mine is bare and echoing. No one likes to hear that about their house, regardless of whether it is true, but in this case it is true.

Apparently the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Canada has a home lottery wherein people buy tickets for a chance to win an awesome mansion. I’m only telling you this because the “Princess Margaret 2011 Showhome” in Toronto was my “pinspiration” and I was unsure what HRH’s role in all this was.

I like a good plate wall, though I don’t have a china collection to display. I have sixteen place settings of one pattern, and it is white, gray and platinum — not the stuff with which to brighten up a white room.

Then I happened upon this:

And I thought of all the bright melamine plates I have been seeing at Target. Josh doesn’t like random arrangements; he likes patterns and symmetry, especially when he’s eating, and I want him to be happy (especially since I gave him food poisoning yesterday). That’s why Princess Margaret initially spoke to me as a possibility for us. Josh would have a cow if I put this on our wall:

But this one he ok’d:

Somehow I always end up at House Beautiful.

So I picked out eleven melamine plates, which are lightweight enough to be held up by the smallest 3M velcro strips with no problem. And if they get knocked off the wall when someone walks by, they don’t break so it is much less stressy than hanging a priceless china collection, which by the way also exceeds my budget.

I don’t have a before picture of the dining room but you can imagine it. Here is a before picture of the plates:

Here is a during picture of the wall:

Here is the finished product:

I’m not sure if it’s tacky to decorate with melamine. If I later decide it is, I will replace them with stoneware and maybe when we’re retired, with china. I know it is not technically symmetrical in any direction because of the blue and green plates, but Josh likes it anyway. Success :)

Here is springtime on our front yard tree. I have never seen it with leaves before so I have no idea what to expect, except that I think it will have big pods. Yay.

Notice how the grass is turning green? We have rain today.