Plate Wall Art

I have a large wall in my dining room that needed just the right art work. I searched through catalogs, my favorite home stores and I even thought about creating my own abstract painting. 

It wasn't until I saw some pictures of cute plate displays that inspired me. 

But I wanted to take it up a notch and do something a little more "untraditional."

 My walls are black, yes black! So I decided to start collecting white plates (with black, gold and silver accents), I texted my mom and a couple friends and asked them to keep a look out for some plates that might work for my new project.

My plates came from all kinds of different plates, thrift shops, 

Home Goods, Marshall's, Pier One, Target and some I already had!

I would not let myself spend more than $5.00 on any one single plate.

I found these great plate hangers that adhere to the backs of plates and can be removed later. 

I bought them at Hobby Lobby, but they are also available on Amazon here.

After washing and drying all the plates, I adhered the hangers to the backs. 

I then traced each plate onto paper, 

cut them out and made little mark where the hook was so I would know where to hang the nails.

I arranged all the plates on the floor below the wall where I was planning to hang them. I made several revisions and got the opinions from my daughter and husband. I moved things around, a lot, and then finally took a picture when I thought I had everything where I wanted it. Looking back now, I think I ended up changing the position again when I hung them on the wall.

 I hung the templates of my plates on to the wall.  

And then used the smallest nails I could find to hang each of my plates. 

I hung up the nails directly through the paper to keep everything in the right place.

 My china rarely get's used, so I thought it would be good to add a piece to the wall!

It was fun for me to gather different shapes and sizes of plate. 

This one above from Pier One, on clearance!

 This little treasure was 99 cents at an antique store!

I bought a set of these Issac Mizrahi dishes last year at Christmas. 

One of each design made it onto the wall.

I love this small oval Threshold platter from Target. 

It's fun to mix up not only the sizes but the shapes too!

And finally this plate came from a tea cup set from Home Goods. I bought it specifically for this purpose and then decided to use the tea cup as a candle (that's another blog post for another time!)

I love the big impact my new collection has made. 

They stand out on the dark wall and I get so many compliments when people walk in the room!