Asheville, NC is known for it’s gorgeous mountain views, amazing food and drinks, and it’s local artisans. In Asheville, inspiration can be found even when you aren’t looking for it. On a recent trip to Asheville we had breakfast at Early Girl Eatery. The food was delicious locally inspired dishes. Being a northern girl, I never tasted Southern Tomato Gravy so I was excited to find out it was surprisingly tasty. So much so, that I started making it when I got home. But other than the food inspiration, I fell in love with the wall art. On one end of the dining room was a wall of beautifully crafted plates hung at just the right angle. I took pictures and vowed that I would create a wall of plates in my own home. So I made a wall like this one in 5 easy steps.
Step 1: Find the Plates
There are so many options for plates depending on your style. If you like an eclectic look, try your local thrift stores for unique or antique plates. If you like an artisan look, you can find many pottery options on etsy or a local craft market, if you are lucky enough to have one nearby. I found my plates at Home Goods and Amazon. I suggest using various, but consistent, size plate. I chose 3 plate sizes, 5″, 8.5″ and 10″. Once you have your plates and sizes it’s time to make a mock-up on your wall.
Step 2: Make a Mock-up
Make paper “plates” by tracing your plates onto paper. You can use any paper you have around. I used the paper that the plates were wrapped in from Home Goods for the white plates and construction paper for my colored plates. Because I planned on painting some of the white plates, this also allowed me to practice painting the designs on paper. Use transparent tape or painters tape to hang your paper plates to the wall. This will allow you to move them around. I spent about 30 minutes moving them around until I had each plate in just the right position.
Step 3: Paint your plates (optional)
You may choose to use various plates that already have a design and won’t want to paint them. However, if you choose to paint your plates like I did, it’s simple and easy. I wanted to recreated the hand crafted feel of the plates I saw in Asheville so I painted mine. For instructions on how to paint porcelain plates, I will be posting a tutorial soon about painting porcelain plates.
Step 4: Hang your plates
There are a couple of options when choosing how to hang your plates. You can purchase yellow disc plate hangers. This is the best option if you don’t want the plates to look like they are attached to the wall and you think at some point in the future you will want to use the plates again. This is because the plate hangers are removable. Although using discs are convenient and easy, they are expensive and the glue takes about 24 hours to dry, so you won’t be able to hang the plates immediately after putting these on. I used the discs on some of the plates, because I thought I may want to used them later and I wanted to see how the plate discs worked. However, I hung most of my plates by adhering D-rings to the back of the plate with epoxy. Make sure you are in a well ventilated area if you use the epoxy and read the directions carefully. I gave the epoxy about 2 hours to dry, just to be safe.
Once you have the hangers on your pictures, it’s time to hang the plates on the wall. I used the paper plates as a guide for where to put the nails.
Step 5: Sit back and Enjoy your new plate wall
Honestly, it was that easy. The hardest part was finding the right plates for what I had envisioned. I hope you found my experiencing useful and inspiring. I would love to hear from you! Please comment and post pictures if you create your own plate wall. I love to see everyone’s creativity.
Love this! I enjoy the colors and creativity of yours better than the original…both darling though!