How To Display Plates on a Wall

I first became interested in vintage china as a child. My dad would take me to car boot sales every Sunday morning and I’d sift through the goodies available trying to find some treasures. Even since then I’ve been creating stunning plate walls to display my favourites. I love creating plate walls everywhere I go - at home, in my central London studio and I’ve also been known to create them for my family and friends. I even put one together for our Wolf & Badger pop-up shop last year! 

I feel like some of these plates are too pretty to just sit in a drawer being ignored, so I put them up on the wall! Plate walls are a great home decor addition as they give a high impact for a low cost and, really, quite minimal effort. They make for a good alternative to wallpaper or a gallery wall. In this article I’m sharing my best tips and tricks for arranging your very own plate wall. 

My best and first piece of advice is the quirkier the better – this applies to both plate walls and all aspects of life really! Mismatched plate walls with key pieces always look best. Choose a variety of plates of different shapes, sizes and colours. Source your plates from different shops, markets and second-hand shops and collect them as you go along. Don’t be afraid to mix and match and don’t forget to have fun with it!

Don’t just start sticking the plates on the wall and hoping for the best. First, plan out your arrangement by laying your plates on the floor. This means you’ll be able to move the plates around as much as you want until you get the perfect layout. If you’re anything like me, you’ll find that you need a few different arrangements to get it looking just right! Decide on whether you’d like your plates close together or more spaced out. There’s no need to measure the gaps between them, just go with what you feel looks right. Don’t forget to snap a picture on your phone so that you can refer back to it once you start transferring the plates to the wall.

Although I don’t like to do too much printing, I do sometimes print out paper versions of my plates to help when I’m planning my layout. You can also just trace around the outline of your plate and cut around this. 

You can place these on the wall and stick them there using blu tack. This helps to avoid any breakages and doesn’t leave any sticky residue on the wall.

Don’t feel like you have to keep your plate wall to just plates. Feel free to add in other components and items like ornaments or artwork that you love. This will help to give variety to your wall. 

One thing that a lot of people worry about when creating a plate wall is that the plates won’t stay stuck on the wall. However, my secret is to use disc adhesive plate hangers. These little beauties are super strong and they allow your plates to hang flat against the wall. They stick to the back of your plate like superglue and then hang onto hooks on your wall. You can buy these online and at craft shops and they’re really cheap. They’re also easy to use as they’re essentially just a big sticker. Once they’re up all that’s left to do is make yourself a well-deserved cuppa and sit back and admire your handiwork!