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| Cracked Art Plates Reused for Door Numbers |
Four beautiful Derruda plates were donated to the thrift store where I volunteer, but they were cracked and therefore unsaleable. People won't buy cracked plates at any price.
I negotiated a token price to keep them out of the dumpster, and pondered. We've wanted to upgrade our house numbers from the practical, but boring, blackplastic jobbers that came with the place.
On Independence Day, we acted.
- Remove plastic numbers and paint terra-cotta.
- Affixed plate holder brackets from McLendon's Hardware, using single-hole U-shaped wire brackets to keep in place (simply hanging from a screw seemed insecure. Although attaching only the top of the holders would probably have worked, I affixed the bottoms of the holders for extra security. We want these to last decades!
- Glue numbers to plates with Gorilla Glue; press with books and let set two hours.
- Hang plates. We're done!
I hadn't used Gorilla Glue a project like this before, and ended up using way more than was needed. It turns out the GG expands as it cures, leaking out around the sides somewhat. I'll trim the excess with an exacto knife some lazy day. In the future, I'll just use less glue; it is not as if the numbers are going to be pried from the plates by some alien force, or that it would lead to disaster if they had.
The result is (if I may boast) very attractive. The numbers are still quite functional; we saved some stuff from the landfill; it cost almost nothing; and it really dresses up our house.
What can we do next?
