Try these fun, easy DIY platter signs for summer entertaining

12 Nov 2025

Most of us have some old platter lying around, ones we are not too fond of but have accumulated over time. Why not give them a new life by turning them into fun signs for when you’re entertaining guests. Use them as a menu or food signs, or just pop them in your entryway as welcome signs. If you don’t have any spare platters, your local second hand store is sure to have some laying around.

You will need:

•           Plates, platters

•           Sand paper

•           Paintbrush

•           Resene Quick Dry

•           Resene Sureseal

•           Resene FX Blackboard Paint

•           Resene Aquaclear

Step 1: Start by sanding the plates. Only sand where you are going to apply paint, you don’t want to damage the pretty rim of metal plates with sandpaper if you’re not going to paint them. Wipe away any dust after sanding.

Step 2: Next, add one coat of primer – Resene Quick Dry for priming wooden plates, Resene ArmourX Adhesion Primer for metals and Resene Sureseal and ceramic plates. 

Step 3: Once the primer is dry, apply two coats of Resene FX Blackboard Paint. Fleur chose to leave the rim of the wooden plate unpainted and finished it with two coats of Resene Aquaclear in a satin finish, but you could prime and paint it with any Resene testpot colour of your choice. Once the blackboard paint is dry, finish by writing on with chalk.

project and images Fleur Thorpe

Published: 12 Nov 2025