Plate Chargers – a quick and easy improvement to an uninspiring purchase

Welcome all to this weeks blog which I have been super excited to share with you. Today, I’m going to show you a quick and simple makeover of inexpensive plate chargers, into sparkling gold charger plates which will add a layer of subtle elegance to your dining table and have your dinner guests talking long after your delicious meal has been finished. And if you do decide to try this one yourself, what better excuse than Mothers Day or our much anticipated Easter holiday stretch, to give you the perfect excuse to show them off. So if you’re ready we should begin…

I have never owned plate chargers and over the years have eyed up those at my friends supper tables with more than a little envy. And I have watched as hostesses create elaborate table settings and then whisk plate chargers off the table as soon as the first course is served. It has always seemed to me their role in table decoration is fairly short lived so it stood to reason their cost should be minimal too. Not so however, as a pre-Christmas shopping trip last year, dedicated solely to buying plate chargers showed me. As I am sure you already know they come in many beautiful forms. You can choose from glass or wood, china or metal. You can have just about any colour or pattern you like. Many come with plain or ruffled edging and you can choose to buy all of one design or mix and match as you so please. One thing all gold charger plates appear to have in common however is a hefty price tag. Especially if you are buying six, eight, ten or even more. And surprise surprise, my preferred choice was no exception. And so on my shopping trip, I became a little disheartened as it seemed to me, my Christmas table would be incomplete for another year. On the way home, I called in at our local Wilko’s to pick up some pretty notebooks (I have a mild obsession I shall share another day) when I saw these nondescript plastic gold charger plates for the heady price of £1 each.

I picked them up and put them back several times before I decided to invest the princely sum of £8 for eight gold charger plates. Unlike the more expensive ones I had viewed earlier in the day, they were not heavy. Nor were they pretty. And they didn’t look expensive either. They were however gold and since my best dinner service bought as a wedding present is etched in gold, I thought I would give it a go. So they came home with me, appeared on my Christmas dinner table and Mr M listened carefully as I gave clear instructions to a whisk them off the table as soon as I served the soup and before any one else had chance to pick them up.

They also appeared at a dinner party soon after Christmas…

That year our Christmas dinner guests were our family and together we discussed the merits of the cheap plate chargers and their role at the table. Everyone agreed that with an expensive renovation and build on the horizon, plate chargers probably should wait. Everyone except me that is. And as I packed the plastic offerings away once the festivities were over, I decided there must be something I could do to turn these poor relations into dining table eye candy. And so my experiment began. Off came the stickers and each plate charger was wiped with rubbing alcohol to ensure a clean surface…

and out came the trusty primer for a thin base coat on both sides…

I then had a hunt around the garage to find this can of spray paint which had been sitting awaiting its moment to shine and gave each side of the eight plate chargers, two light coats of paint and left them over night to dry.

I used a coarse sandpaper and gently distressed the plate chargers, since I wanted to show the original gold, the white primer and of course the promised almond finish. And finally to seal each plate, I sprayed both sides with one coat of this acrylic protector…

These two close-ups give you an idea of the distressed finish…

And here are the newly painted plate chargers in a pale blue supper setting…

And working on the basis that twenty-five years equates to vintage, here they are in a crisp white vintage setting…

What do you think? I am rather pleased with how my not so expensive plate chargers have turned out. And I’ve decided that as long as Mr M gets them off the table pretty sharpish when I serve the starters, no-one will be any the wiser to the fact they are not their more expensive counterparts. No one that is except you. And I feel by now I know you well enough to ask you to keep this little secret just between ourselves. I thought you might… until next week…x