Busy, Busy, Busy

Pinterest and Facebook will have to wait.  I was BUSY today.

Pottery Barn had a wall of silver trays in one of their fall catalogs (that I have since misplaced--that won't happen ever again once I get my Pinterest working, right?) that looked similar to this:

image from this blog

It was a little different, but you get the idea.

Y'all know how much I love myself an auction, right?  I've mentioned that before?  Well, you can get silver-plated trays at almost every auction--a lot of 3-6 trays, with other random stuff, will go for between $5 and $15.  I bid on these lots whenever I see them, and if I don't get that lot, I adopt the auction-lover's mantra, "There will always be another one."

I've been accumulating trays for a few months now--I was even given a few because people knew I was gathering them.  I decided that today was the day to assemble my wall.  I had allocated the day to surfing Pinterest as I mentioned yesterday, but . . . it'll still be there tomorrow, right?

It took a few hours to polish all 24 of them, and I thought that would be the hard part.  I was wrong.  I have the hardest time laying stuff out to hang on the wall.  Anyone else have this problem?  So I stole a hint from my bestie, Karen, and her daughter, Brenn.  I measured the wall, then I transferred those measurements to my entry floor with blue tape.  I marked off the space where my menu board and thermostat are, then I began spacing the trays.

Roxy was not amused, as you can see.

I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to remember the spacing once some of the trays were on the wall and the others were still on the floor, so I went to the top of the stairs and snapped a picture:

Then I downloaded the picture onto the computer for easy reference.  I referred to that picture at least a dozen times.  So glad I did that.

After about two hours of guessing, measuring, hammering, and climbing up and down the ladder, this is what I had:

I wish I could get a better picture, but this is the wall between my kitchen and the back door, and the photo space and light are quite limited.

Here are shots from either angle.

Heading to the door . . .

 . . . and heading into the kitchen.

I love the different shades of silver and varying layers of patina on each tray.  The square tray on the bottom left is from a thrift store in Baltimore (ah, Baltimore!).  The rest are auction finds or gifts from friends.

I mentioned my thermostat, didn't I?  Where could it be? Well, I just happened to read this post on My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia TODAY, and she gave a great hint on hiding it.  I turned the bowl second from the bottom on the right upside down, and it's a perfect cover.  Brad thinks it may interfere with the thermostat's job--which is to measure the temperature of the air.  Like that matters?  It's easily removed if there's trouble--hoping not.

Best of all, most of the trays are hung with plate hangers, so when I want to use them (like maybe for the wedding at my house on Friday?), I can just lift them down, remove the hanger, then rehang when done.  Three are hung with hooks since they are footed or too deep for a hanger.  A few others are hung with Command strips (LOVE THESE!).  If they need to be used, then I'll just re-stick them.

This is my favorite plate on the wall, hanging on the right just above the menu board . . .

. . . an original, solid bronze building marker from an American Legion hall, undated but stamped "made in Nashua, NH."  The most expensive piece on the wall, it set me back a grand total of $12.50. 

Start to finish today--took about 3 1/2 hours, not including all the polish time.  Worth every minute, and I think Brad will be happy that my purchases of random lots of silver-plated stuff are ending.

Okay, what's the next project?  Can't wait . . . And I'll be totally happy to let you pin my project on one of your design boards. ;)

Linking up to Jenny Matlock's B for Alphabe-Thursday.