Broken Dishes Become New Treasures

Crash! There goes another broken dish, making your service for eight into service for five. While there's plenty of reasons to be upset at this moment, there's no reason to waste money. A broken dish is no longer part of your set, but it's in no way trash, and neither is your service for five. It's all just an opportunity for a great project and new uses for old items.

Broken Dishes

Broken plates rarely crack; they shatter. Carefully pick up the broken pieces and save them. Broken plate pieces make great collage projects, and since the original plate matched your place setting, the new collage project will, too.

Purchase an old metal serving tray at a flea market, yard sale, or discount store. The design doesn't matter so the uglier and cheaper the better. Then, pour a layer of thin-set mortar onto the tray. Smooth it with a serrated spreader, either one made for tile or one you make yourself by cutting notches into a piece of plastic. Then, push the broken pieces into the mortar. You can create a design with multiple broken plates or recreate your original plate design, leaving spaces between each piece. Fill these spaces with grout when the mortar dries. Colored grout adds to your design, so consider some options. Wipe the grout from the pieces with a moist sponge before it dries. Now you have an interesting serving piece, a center piece tray (try making your collage on a lazy susan), or a wall hanging that matches your place setting.

Cracks and Chips

For those plates that aren't broken but only chipped, a variety of options await your crafty hands. Consider building a candy or cake dish from your broken dishes. Always carefully file the broken edges and reseal them with a spray acrylic to keep them smooth. Layer a smaller plate on top of a complimentary plate or another larger chipped dinner plate. Make sure you don't align the chips or cracks of the two plates. Then, using mortar or strong waterproof glue for ceramics, layer the dishes on top of one another. If the top dish is broken in half, use the mortar to repair it as it sits on top of the larger dish. If a piece is missing from either plate, use mortar or grout to fill it in. Now, find a sturdy juice glass and grout/glue that to the middle of the underside of your plate. You now have a standing candy or cake dish. You can create tiers with extra juice glasses and graduating plates. Did you break the handle off of your coffee mug? File away the remaining stubs and use that in place of your juice glass. Now your entire candy dish will reflect your dish pattern.

The Leftovers

What do you do with the incomplete set of dishes that aren't broken? Don't discard the set; reinvent it. Shop around for another incomplete complimentary set at flea markets and yard sales and combine the two. Or, buy new individual pieces to compliment it. For every one of your original pieces, purchase a matching complimentary piece. If you have a flowered set, add a solid color to match the flowers. If you have stripes, purchase solids or polka dots with the same colors. You could even match stripes with stripes as long as the colors are from the same color palette.

If you're looking to replace your entire place setting, consider open stock dishes. They're more expensive, but they offer the ability to add extra plates, replace broken dishes, and purchase only what you need. If you don't use saucers, don't waste money on them. Instead, add extra dinner plates for company, purchase larger cereal bowls instead of salad bowls, or mix and match styles to anticipate future mixing and growth.