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As with any project, please use your own common sense and discretion. This tutorial is meant to offer helpful suggestions, but it is up to the reader to weigh any risk associated with this project.

What do I use to hang vintage dishes?

I’m glad you asked! I know some people use those adhesive disks which are supposed to be invisible (the kind where you wet the back and stick it to the back of the plate). I’ve never personally tried those, but they make me soooo nervous and I’ve heard too many stories of plates falling off of walls and shattering.

My favorite hanger, by far, is the Tripar wire plate hanger which securely grasps onto the plate and comes with a nail and picture hanging hook specifically for the plate hanger. They come in both white and brass – I like to use the white ones.

You will need to measure your dish before purchasing a plate hanger! They come in several size ranges – just check the measurement specification on the package for appropriate plate size. If you’re on the edge of a different size, go for tighter rather than looser. You never want the plate hanger to be loose on the plate. Also note the maximum weight each size of hanger can hold.

Important Note About Plate Hangers

Be sure to use plate hangers that are coated, not bare ware hangers. The coating is a rubbery material designed to prevent scratches on your plates as well as aid in gripping the plate securely. The hangers I’ve linked in this tutorial are coated. Bare wire hangers may scratch up your plates. When placing the plate hanger on the plate, carefully put the hooks in place and try not to scoot it around too much on the plate. Be sure to use the proper size hanger for your plate – too loose and it won’t securely hold the plate – extremely tight will either break your hanger or put unnecessary pressure on your plate.

A note on removing stickers from plates

If you have a stubborn thrift store sticker stuck on your plate, a short soak in some warm soapy water will do the trick. I use a gentle rubber scraper to scraper off the soapy sticker and it comes right off. I’ve heard lemon essential oil works well too but have not personally tried it.

How to hang vintage plates

1. Gather all vintage dishes and lay them out on some paper – I use scrap paper or newspaper.
2. Trace around each plate with a felt tip pen to create an outline.
3. Cut out all the plate shapes from the paper.

4. Arrange the plates on the floor or a table in the shape you want them on the wall. This gives a good visual for how they will look all lined up.

5. Use masking tape to hang all the newspaper outlines on the wall, measuring with a tape measure (or sometimes I just use the width of my hand) to get the spacing right. Once all the outlines are up there step back to double check that it looks correct.
6. Next attach the wire plate hangers to the plates: just hook the top two feet onto the top of the plate, stretch the springs down around the back and hook the bottom two feet onto the bottom of the plate. If the feet aren’t sitting quite right you can take the hanger off and bend the wire feet carefully with pliers.

7. Use a tape measure to measure the distance between the top of my plate and the “V” shape of the wire hanger meant for hanging on the nail and hook. Remember this number.

8. Working with the paper template on the wall, find the center of the plate template, then measure down from the top the same measurement that you got in the previous step. This is where your nail will go. Put a dot or x there with a dark pen.
9. Hammer the picture hanger and nail into the wall on the black dot, going right through the newspaper. Once your hook is in you can tear off the newspaper and you’re left with a perfectly placed hook!

10. You can test your plate on your new hanger, but if you have multiple plates to do on the same wall I recommend not hanging the plates until all the hammering is done! Don’t want any accidents!

Do you love vintage plates too? Tell me below in the comments how you like to display them! I hope you found this little tutorial helpful and thanks so much for reading!

Blessings,
Melissa

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I made mine from a vintage lace tablecloth that I got at a rummage sale for $1, along with other supplies I already had on hand. The tablecloth was stained in many places and really not fit for use anymore, so I didn’t feel too guilty for cutting it up! You could easily use an old doily or any type of lace from the fabric store if you wish.

Supplies

• Cardstock
• Pencil
• Scissors for paper
• White scrap fabric (I used an old sheet)
• Old lace tablecloth (or doilies or other lace fabric)
• Fiber fill or other stuffing
• Optional wooden skewer or thin stick
• Hot glue gun & refill sticks
• Optional rubber glove
• Fabric scissors
• Faux fur, small pom-poms, or cotton balls
• Cotton twine (preferably natural color, not bright white)
• Needle and White Thread (if creating a garland)

Directions

1. Draw a bunny shape on the card stock (or print one from the computer).

2. Cut the bunny shape out (never use fabric scissors on paper – it will dull them!).

3. Trace the bunny shape on the white fabric using your pencil. You will need 2 tracings per bunny. I recommend an odd number of bunnies for a garland – I made 7 bunnies (14 tracings).

4. Cut the bunny shapes out with your fabric scissors.

5. Glue the 2 bunny shapes together using hot glue, but leave a gap for stuffing the bunny.

6. Stuff the bunny with desired amount of fiber fill. The wooden skewer can help get the stuffing up into the ears.

7. Glue the gap closed.

8. Cut a rectangle of lace that will cover the whole bunny.

9. Working quickly, outline the whole bunny in hot glue and lay the lace on top, pressing the edges down into the hot glue. Wearing a rubber glove will help prevent you from getting burned, as the hot glue will seep up through the holes in the lace!

10. Trim the excess lace off from the edges of the bunny.

11. Glue on a small piece of faux fur, pom-pom, or a cotton ball for the tail.

12. Tie a small bow with the twine. Glue it to the neck of the bunny.

13. Use as basket filler, or create a garland with a needle and white thread.

I threaded the string through the center of each bunny’s head, working from right to left. Don’t go too low on each bunny with the thread or the bunnies will tip forward when the garland is hung.

Alternatively, you could glue the bunnies onto a length of twine if you don’t want to mess with a needle and thread. I personally like having the option of pulling them off someday and so prefer the thread method.

There you have it!

I hope these sweet little bunnies bring all the elegant, vintage Spring vibes to your home! Enjoy!

A few months ago, a friend and former choir member at church who follows my blog asked me an interesting question:

“Where are the hymns?”

I must have seemed confused because she explained, “Hymns & Home – I’ve seen a lot of the home part, but where are the hymns?”

I explained that I chose the name “Hymns & Home” because I felt it well represented two major parts of who I am: a church musician and a wife/mom/homemaker. The blog was really just intended to be about home decor & DIY.

But it got me thinking… Why not?

Hymns and their rich, meaningful texts are such a big part of my life and who I am that surely there is some way they could be included here. Well, with all this pandemic stuff going on the last few months, my mind has been drawn over and over again to a particular hymn text: “I Am Trusting Thee, Lord Jesus.” Let me share a few stanzas with you:

I am trusting Thee, Lord Jesus, Trusting only Thee;
Trusting Thee for full salvation, Great and free.

I am trusting Thee to guide me; Thou alone shalt lead,
Ev’ry day and hour supplying All my need.

I am trusting Thee, Lord Jesus; Never let me fall.
I am trusting Thee forever And for all.

– Frances R. Havergal

This hymn speaks of the many ways Jesus provides for us and how we can fully trust Him to: grant us salvation, pardon and cleanse us from sin, guide us through life, give us His Holy Word, uphold and sustain us in this life and the next.

As much as this hymn has stuck in my head, I thought it fitting to create a FREE PRINTABLE for you all, just in case it would be of comfort and assurance to some of you! Just click one of the links below to download it. I am making this available to anyone – you don’t need to be a subscriber to get it. (For personal use only, please – no selling or modifying.)

God does not promise we will not encounter hardships in this life, but He does promise to be with us all the way. Most importantly, He promises us eternal life through the saving work of His son, Jesus Christ. I pray that wherever you are in the midst of this chaos that you would find peace, joy, and assurance from the One in whom we can fully trust.

It’s beginning to look a lot like…

…Winter!

It snowed here a few days ago! Like majorly snowed. It’s not a common occurence to have such a big snow before Thanksgiving around here. Maybe a few flurries, but not the kind where school gets cancelled and the highways are a mess. I do remember it snowing on Thanksgiving when I was really little.

Well, all this snow has me in full Winter mode, and I’m happy to announce that the Hymns & Home Winter Botany Printables are now available!

I decided to make Winter printables instead of Christmas ones for a specific reason: You know that time between New Year’s and Valentine’s Day that’s just kind of a decorating no-man’s-land? I try to combat that by using wintery decor as the base layer for my Christmas decor. I can sprinkle in some Christmas-specific stuff for Christmastime, remove it when New Year’s is past, and I’ve still got all the wintery cozy stuff around! These printables fall into that wintery category.

This season I’ve been loving all the little bottle-brush trees, flocked pine, and subtle use of berries. I drew inspiration from all those when creating these printables – they have the pine and a few berries, but plenty of clean white, like freshly fallen snow.

These prints are a marriage of vintage and minimalism. The drawings are definitely vintage – straight out of an old book – but I’ve kept the text and background simple and clean to give these prints a peaceful, wintry aesthetic.

I hope you enjoy, and as always, please don’t hesitate to drop me a comment or message if you have any questions or issues!

Click here to get the Winter Botany Printables.