Lisa Congdon’s wall of plates
ReadyMade’s Editors’ Notes blog recently featured a fantastic round-up of ceramic plate reuses. At the end of the post, Katherine writes: “If all else, and I mean all else fails, you can hang them on the wall.”
Gotta disagree with Katherine on this one: I think plate walls are a first rate choice for ceramic and plastic dishes, especially suited for the dining room or above the kitchen stove. Plates won’t catch fire in the event of a wok flair-up and if grease happens to spatter upwards, you can simply remove, wash with the rest of your wares and rehang. In fact, I love plate walls so much that I have three of them! Two in the kitchen and one outside on the back porch.
The majority of my plates came from thrift stores for less than a dollar apiece, making the plate wall a cost effective way to achieve big impact in any space. Craft and hardware stores have wire plate hangers in a variety of sizes and you can trace your plates onto wax paper and tape up a template for perfect planning or start with one and go random. Use different sizes, shapes and colors or go monochromatic. The possibilities are endless.
Monochrome plate wall by Flickr user abchao
Stairwell plate wall by Flickr user reesedixon
What’s your verdict? Plate walls: hot or not?
Tags: ceramic, hang plates, plate, plate wall, Reuse, vintage plate
I’m with you, Megan. I especially like the plates sweeping up the stairwell wall.
Hot! Like that you can reuse orphaned plates that might otherwise get discarded!
Not.too Grandma and Mom’s house for me. Nice take on an old tradition, but still too kitschy.
I love, love, love the plates up the stairwell and the monochrome plates. That gives me several ideas. Hmmmm….
Have you seen this porcelain plate wallpaper? http://poppytalk.blogspot.com/2010/07/porcelain-wallpaper.html
It could easily be way too much, but I think it would make the sweetest little pantry.
Usually I cringe at the thought of plates on a wall, but the simple adjustment of clustering them instead of a matronly line makes all of the difference in the world. I can dig it.
I also enjoy decorating with plates. I usually don’t use wire hangers, but rather adhesive plate hangers like these at http://www.allplatehangers.com/Plate-Hangers