Hanging Plates On Dining Room Wall

Hanging Plates On Dining Room Wall

Look, we all love a good gallery wall. But in the same maximalist spirit that moves me to constantly find new places to wallpaper, I've often thought, "what else could I hang on my wall?" While art is a necessary staple of any home, that art doesn't have to be confined to paintings and prints in frames—there are plenty of other objects to add to your decor. Take, for example, plates.

People have been hanging plates on walls for essentially as long as decorative plates have existed. After all, with the fine craftsmanship and detailed painting on Limoges and other porcelain, these pieces are just as much works of art as useful serving pieces. From England to France to the American South, tabletop lovers have long hung plates on the wall both as a form of decoration and, sometimes, a clever storage option.

My blank wall.

Kathryn Wirsing

No one knows this better than John Derian, designer, shop owner, and decoupage artist extraordinaire. He has earned a cult following for his decorative plates, featuring repurposed motifs from vintage books and prints. Too pretty to eat off, Derian's plates make the perfect fodder for a decorative wall. So, when his company generously sent me an array of plates after I moved into my new apartment, I set out to create a plate wall of my own. Here's how I did it.

Don't have a stash of plates lying around? Try tag sales or Etsy for sets of inexpensive dinnerware you can use for this project.

Measuring the plate backdrop.

Kathryn Wirsing

1. Measure your background

Find the bare wall (or section of wall) where you want to hang your plates, and measure out the width and height of the area you want to cover. This will be the canvas for your wall art.

Plates arranged on a table roughly the same size as the hanging background.

Kathryn Wirsing

2. Arrange your plates

Using your measurements as a guide, lay out your plates on the floor or a surface the correct size, moving around until you get an arrangement you like. Tip: If you're using plates of varying sizes and shapes, vary them throughout, but keep larger pieces towards the bottom so the arrangement doesn't feel top-heavy.

The taped outline.

Kathryn Wirsing

3. Tape out your plan

Using blue painters tape, translate the arrangement on the table or floor to the wall. I find it easiest to start by measuring the placement of the center piece, then working out from there for the others, mapping out the distance between each plate and its size to get a mock up on the wall.

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4. Attach hangers

The big difference between framed art and plates is that art—since it's created to hang on a wall—usually comes with a wire or hanger. Plates, obviously, do not. That's where your new best friend comes in: plate hanging wires. Get the kind with springs, so they'll hold your plate tightly, and with coated edges, so they won't crack or chip them. The wires come in various sizes for every kind of plate, and most come with hooks and nails to hang them on. Attach the wires to the plates.

5. Hang!

Now it's time to hang! For each plate, measure the distance from the top of the plate to the wire that will catch on the hook behind it, then nail a hook into the wall that same place on your taped outline of the plate. Tip: If you live in an older building and your walls tend to shake a lot when you hammer into them, nail in all the hooks before hanging all the plates.

My wall before and after.

Kathryn Wirsing

6. Adjust if needed

Even the best DIYers make mistakes, and despite your measuring, something might look a bit off when all is said and hung. If so, don't be afraid to adjust, swapping plates or moving the hooks a bit—your plates will likely cover any extra holes!

And voilà! Now you have a new kind of wall art.

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Hadley Keller Digital Director Hadley Keller is a writer and editor based in New York, covering design, interiors, and culture.

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Hanging Plates On Dining Room Wall

Source: https://www.housebeautiful.com/design-inspiration/a29652925/how-to-hang-plates-on-wall/