Way back in August, I started a re-do of this dining room. Then in September, I sewed up the new curtains and swapped around some furniture. This weekend, Jeff did this woodworking project of building a pair of shelves to hold his plate collection.
He stained the shelves to match the buffet table and the dining room chairs. He worked hard and measured and measured again. He was worried they would be crooked or off-center but I think all his efforts paid off, and he got them straight and even.
His plates are the Professions, a line of plates put out by Royal Doulton. 
Jeff's grandmother had a huge plate collection. A big wall in her farm house was covered with plates, many were gifts from friends and relatives. She had a lot of souvenier plates and state plates and holiday plates. She let all the relatives pick out the ones they wanted and she wrote their names on the back with permanent marker.
I think Jeff picked out the classiest and most valuable of all the ones she had, at the time, he was just a kid and had no idea what they were, he just liked them. After he got them, they pretty much went into a cabinet. Years later, we saw one of the plates on a British tv show called Bargain Hunt and Jeff started doing some online research on them. He bought a few on Ebay and then we found 2 more at the Antique Mall in our town.
This summer, he got the oldest and hardest to find one, The Bookworm, on Ebay and it completes the set.
I really like the plates on the shelves, and how nice that they are mostly green and red and match my green yard sale table cloth and the vintage rose fabric I used on the curtains and stool!
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| the 93 was Grandmother Pearl's numbering system. She had over 200 plates and Jeff's were 93 and 96. |
So making this room pretty again has taken awhile but I am really happy with it. There is still one huge blank wall but I can live with it.
This project really went with my Tightwad October theme too. We did spend money on the wood, stain and hangers to make the shelves. But everything else was just re-used and things that we already had.
I am linking this to Cottage Instincts Make it 4 Monday. This is a wonderful blog with lots of links to other decorating projects.
