Free Plan: Mission Plate Rack
Forty-eight inches of oak, two plate rails, doweled joints — a 1912 dining room piece built over a few shop days.
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- Full PDF plan
- Cut list & dimensions
- 14 steps incl. wall mounting
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The plan is yours. What are you building after it.
The plate rack plan is yours to keep — cut list, dimensions, plate grooves, wall mounting, all fourteen steps. It is three to four shop days. The question that costs most people more time than the build itself is what goes on the bench after those three to four shop days.
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Plates behind glass look like a museum. Plates on a rack look like somebody lives there.
This plan comes from Mission Furniture, How To Make It, Part 3, published by Popular Mechanics in 1912 and long out of copyright. Forty-eight inches wide, four posts with beveled tops, a top board, two plate rails, four small shelves, and back boards that lap over the sides. The joinery is dowels throughout — posts to side and back boards, posts to plate rails — with one mortised detail: the raised plate rests let into the side pieces above the rails. Nothing here needs a full mortise-and-tenon skill set, but it does want a doweling jig and a mortising chisel, not just a drill and a hammer.
Which means the build runs three to four shop days with a doweling jig, a mortising chisel and a saw. Two things still decide how it turns out, and only one of them is woodworking: the direction the boards overlap, and what is behind the wall you hang it on.
Project at a Glance
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Main materials
- Oak, dowels, wood glue, wall screws, finish
- Build time
- Three to four shop days, plus finish
- Tools needed
- Miter saw, doweling jig and drill, 7/8-inch groove cutter or router, mortising chisel, clamps, level, sandpaper
- Joinery
- Doweled construction, with one mortised detail at the plate rests
- Safety
- Wall-hung and loaded with dishes — see the note below before you hang it
- Source
- Popular Mechanics Handbooks, 1912 (public domain)
Before you assemble:
Mark the overlap before the glue is open. The back boards go over the side boards, not the other way around — it puts the load path into one plane instead of relying on the doweled edge alone, and it is the way the piece reads correctly from the front. At the bench, with parts in your hands and everything looking symmetrical, it is a coin toss. A pencil mark on the inside face settles it. Same for the plate grooves: cut them while the rails are still loose and flat, not after the frame is together.
Here is what this project quietly proves. A doweling jig, a mortising chisel, the ordinary saw and drill — that is a whole piece of display furniture, out of a shop that fits in a corner.
Most people who feel stuck do not need a bigger machine. They need one more finished piece behind them and a clear idea of what to build next. That second part is where a lot of weekends get lost: not building, but scrolling for something worth building.
Recommended Next Step
The next project, already drawn
Ted's Woodworking is a large library of complete plans — cut lists, dimensions and step-by-step drawings across furniture, shop fixtures and outdoor projects. The point of it is not inspiration. It is that the next project becomes a decision instead of a search.
If the plate rack goes well and you want the dining room set to keep going, this is the shortest route to the next set of drawings.
Ted's Woodworking
A large library of complete woodworking plans with cut lists, dimensions and step-by-step drawings.
Disclosure: Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through them, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
A few shop days, and the dining room stops looking unfinished
Grab the plan, cut the posts first, and mark the overlap before anything gets glued.