Wooden Plate Rack

A plate rack is a classic farmhouse-kitchen fixture: plates stand on edge in slots, on display and draining. This one is deliberately minimal — two 1x4s for the sides, three for the shelves, and a set of rails and back supports — because once it's screwed to the wall, the wall provides most of the structure, so it doesn't need heavy joinery.

That's the key insight the plan leans on: you can build the rack with just glue and nails because the finished piece gets lag-anchored to wall studs, which stiffens the whole assembly. Always glue when you nail, but you don't need to over-build the box itself.

The rails are what actually hold the plates upright, spaced so a plate's rim rests against them without tipping out. Space them to the plates you own — dinner plates and salad plates want slightly different gaps. Hang it into studs through the back 1x2s under the shelves with 3" wood screws (on a standard stud-framed drywall wall); that back cleat is the load path, so it has to catch framing, not just drywall.