Place Mat Wall Hangings

I created this groovy wall treatment for Better Homes & Gardens’ Window & Wall Ideas magazine. It’s made of plastic place mats attached together with ball chain key chains. I love this idea because there are so many fun designs out there for place mats. The ones pictured here are from Ikea. And all you need is one little nail at the top of each row to hang it on the wall. I’ve also done this wall treatment using vinyl records instead of place mats. You can use round or rectangular place mats. And these make great room dividers, too. Yes, it’s yet another project that will have your friends and neighbors thinking you’re really creative or highly deranged.

What you'll need:

Plastic place mats (number determined by size of wall)
Ball chains (available  at www.ballchain.com, 2 per round mat, 4 per square or rectangle mat)
Nails
Drill

1. Mark the location of place mat holes for the ball chains. For round place mats, mark two spots directly across from one another down the center diameter of the place mat. For rectangular place mats, mark four spots, two on each long side roughly 2 inches from the side of the mat and one-half inch from the top.

2. Drill the marked holes in each place mat. Use the first place mat as a template for the rest of the place mats. You know I love any project where I get to use a power drill. “Manly yes, but I like it, too.”

3. Attach the place mats together, row by row, with a ball chain in between each mat, plus one at the very top. What is a ball chain? It’s that little chain that’s used in cheap key chains or nail clippers. They’re really useful thingamajigs.

4. Hang each row of connected place mats from the nails. Now feast on everyone’s compliments.