A Neat Little Trick

This will be a shorty but a goody. Today, I unpacked the first box and loaded some of my china into the glass-fronted china cabinet in the kitchen. I had the cabinet guys line up my cabinet shelves with the grid on the glass door, but then I realized that the shelves had no routered groove for my china plates the way my old wooden hutch had. I started thinking about how I would support those plates, and I came up with an idea that I ran by the cabinet guys. I got the okay, yeah, that would work, so I did it today.

First, I cleaned the shelves with some ammonia-based glass cleaner to get off any dust or grease or anything that might keep the silicone from sticking to the shelf. Then, I got out the big plate that needed to be supported and measured where I wanted the edge of the plate to rest and marked that spot with a pencil. Then I used a ruler to measure for a line all the way across the shelf. After that, I got out the smaller plates that needed to be supported, and I did the same, marked and measured and drew a line. I determined that I only needed two different support lines, but I could have put in as many as I wanted.

Then I got a tube of clear silicone sealer, and I ran a bead of silicone all the way along the shelf, starting with the line furthest from me, closest to the back of the cabinet. I ran the second bead, closer to me, along the shelf as well. I went slowly and made sure I had a good, thick bead of sealer laid down. I went back and filled in any spots that looked a little thin. Then I left the cabinet doors open and waited two hours, until the silicone sealer had set up firmly and was transparent.

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When I thought the sealer was dry, I tested the strength of the silicone lines with my finger to see if they had actually adhered to the shelf. They had, so I placed the plate and watched to see if the weight of it was going to dislodge the silicone bead. It didn’t. I left the plate in place, put in a couple more plates, and then filled the shelf. I put a large teapot in front of the big plate, just in case it did dislodge the silicone line. I don’t think it will, but I thought “better safe than sorry.”

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The silicone dried clear, nearly transparent, and is invisible with the shelf full. I’m pretty happy with how that little project turned out.

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That’s it! That’s my neat little trick that requires no power tools to make a plate groove out of any shelf. All you need is a pencil, a ruler or tape measure, and a tube of clear silicone sealer. Now go out and stand up those plates!