Hanging Plates on a Wall

A few weeks back I was working on decorating a portion of our front hallway and decided to hang several white plates I scored at Valoo' Vilage' (a pronunciation introduced to me by another Valu Village regular like myself.  Isn't it funny?)

Have you ever looked at beautiful platters and dishes hanging on the walls, no hanger in sight, and wondered how on earth they stayed there?  Crazy I know, but for a long time this was a mystery to me ~ a dilemma I would actually ponder as I drifted off to sleep at night. 

Well, for all those crazies out there like me, I hope you'll be delighted to know that my pondering actually produced a solution one night, and now I have plates hanging on my wall without a single hanger in sight.  The solution is so easy!

You know those little brass picture hangers you can buy at any grocery store, supercenter, hardware store, etc?  The ones with tiny little nails that are extremely difficult to hammer in because your fingers keep getting in the way?  They look like this:

I just happened to have a stash of these in my kitchen's odds n ends drawer, so I grabbed a bunch of them out, grabbed my bottle of Gorilla Glue, and proceeded to dispense about a pea-sized dollop of glue under each one of those hangers, being careful to center them on the plate so it didn't hang crooked if it had a scalloped edge or design.

I was also careful to glue the hanger far enough below the back rim on the plate so the rim didn't interfere with the nail protruding from the wall.

If you haven't used Gorilla Glue before, prepare to be astounded at its strength.  You should also know it expands as it dries so expect some glop to ooze out from under your hangers.  This is a good thing, and simply means it's preparing to do its job with gusto.

Because I'd never tried Gorilla Glue to hang plates before, I let the hangers dry over night just to be safe.  The next day, I hung them on the wall flanking this green mirror in our hallway.

This was almost two months ago, and my plates are still going strong.  I think it's safe to say my idea was successful!  Is it okay to admit I'm still pretty tickled I thought of this on my own?

Before I go today, I need to take a minute to share how much I have LOVED the wool Catherine rug we ordered from Ballard Designs three years ago. 

I was deep cleaning our living room last weekend and had a rare moment when the rug was free from sofas, the coffee table and chair legs, and I couldn't help but snap a picture of it, still beautiful after three years of family life, two potty-training puppies, occasional chips and candy and popcorn crumbs, and general wear and tear.

This is the 9 x 12 size, and we put a very cushy rug pad underneath to give it that sink-in depth we all love.  What a blessing to still be as 100% completely in love with this rug today as when I first saw it in the catalog three years ago.

Our little Schnauzer, Macy Mae, is especially fond of it as well :-)

Jaimee