I Have Been, "RACKING," My Brain For Ideas

 

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To say my mind is busy spinning with ideas would be an understatement. With the purchase of a new home I can see new possibilities around me everywhere.

However I am the kind of homeowner that keeps her home pretty much in the same vein with tweaks here and there.

In looking around at new ideas I always refer back to my pins on Pinterest. I do have a board that is called,

 “Things that are on my radar!”

This is the board I pin things that I keep being attracted to for some reason. I have found by pinning lots of ideas like this  helps me either want it more, or I realize I probably couldn’t really live with it in reality.

If we get caught up in the moment, or a new trend and just dive in head first without thinking of how it will relate to our existing pieces, or the over all feeling of our home we can end up with a hodge podge of ideas plunked down in our rooms therefore creating a, “Hot Mess!”

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I spend a great deal of time mulling over ideas, and making plans on the over all design before ever jumping forward with anything. 

In my career when asked what is the biggest mistake homeowners make, I would always say, “They start decorating without a plan!” 

If you don’t have a flexible plan in place you can not make good choices, or adjustments as needed.

There will always be adjustments that need to take place for a few reasons, availability, affordability, and practicality.

We as home owners always have to keep these three things in mind when decorating our homes.

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With all of this in mind I thought I would share one of the ideas I am just thinking about for our new home, in fact it is an element I thought seriously about for our old home as well. 

You have probably guessed what it is by now because of the images I have posted!

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PLATE RACKS

In thinking about a plate rack I think the positives for me are it is decorative, and functional at the same time.

It can add charm to a blank wall. The down side, or just a bit of apprehension on my part is, will it be too much going on for my eye. 

I like simplicity, and not too much visual clutter. Because of this I have to think it through completely before committing.

Let me show you the wall that I am thinking about putting it on. This wall is one of the problem children in my homes design. 

With a new build or a reno we sometimes have to work around/with problem elements. The only way to get around this is to build a custom home that you design from the ground up.

My problem child is the end wall in my dining area it has two 18in. square awkward looking windows at the top of the wall.

I understand the reasoning behind this was probably to allow those that have a hutch or a serving piece to be able to place it there. 

I have NEVER had, or even liked a hutch so for me I would much rather have a nice big window there, but I did not design the home so no one is listening to me on this count so I am going to work around my two awkward windows.

I am trying to look at this as a design lesson for me, and for you and I will figure out something once we actually live in the home, but for now I am dreaming, and making plans for the possibilities, so that is what we are going to discuss today.

I think I have about 6ft high of wall space to work with under the windows. Now use your imagination and picture white cabinets, white quartz counter tops and medium brown hardwood floors……

These are my actual finishes for this area.

Before we start I have two other ideas that could work for this wall as well. I will discuss those in later post. 

But for now lets look at some plate racks that could possibly work on that end wall…

Ideally I would like that entire wall clad with paneling of some kind so that the plate rack looks almost like a built in feature, something like this…….

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I love the simplicity of this design with only one platter per shelf. I will display some plain white platters that I have collected over the years. 

The one feature I would change on this  plate rack is the curved corner pieces, that makes it a bit too cute for my style. I love the idea of  having sconces included in the design. That is very appealing to me.

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Nice and simple, however I think the top needs to be capped off with some time of header.

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I love the way the white plates pop off of the darker background. I use black in my home, just not sure I could do this.

If I did do this, I would keep the frame and the rails white and only have the very back wall black. It is a thought and one I will consider.

In my consideration I have to keep in mind that I do not want to get too many black and white areas in my home, making it look contrived rather than well designed, it is a very fine line that I try not to cross.

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I really liked seeing this particular plate rack  because of it’s white surroundings, which is what I will have. It is also wider than some of the others I have seen. Again, I would eliminate the corner corbels for a cleaner line.

This is one of the ideas that I have for my problem child wall!!

Next question:

Should I do the plate rack right below the windows, and put nice big molding around the windows to make it look like part of the plate rack, or should I include the windows inside the plate rack on the very top shelf?

Hmmmm? Something to think about.

I have two more ideas up my sleeves, more on that later!!!