***Please note that this Hanging a Decorative Plate Wall will be updated and recirculated periodically to reflect the most up-to-date information. This list was most recently updated as of October 2025.***
For quite some time now, the grand millennial in me has been dreaming about hanging a Decorative Plate Wall in my living room (see my reveal pre-plate wall here). Over the past year, I have been collecting and curating a selection of plates from my thrift store runs to hang on my wall whilst fantasizing about how it’ll all come together. Confessions over here!!! It wasn’t until recently that I actually felt comfortable enough to even use a hammer and a nail to hang something on the wall when I felt driven to independently hang up a gallery at my at-home bar: Two Grans’s Bar. Even after hanging up everything and putting together the gallery wall at Two Grans’s Bar, I still felt super nervous about hanging a Decorative Plate Wall. I mean, plates are pretty delicate items anddd I like to think that the plates I’ve collected for my decorative plate wall are pretty beautiful and worth saving for many years to come. However, after a bit of agony over wanting to hang it all up and fear over hanging everything up, I decided one Friday evening to just do it. Since then, my decorative plate wall of my dreams has been beautifying my living room! And for those of you who are nervous about hanging a Decorative Plate wall, this guide will walk you through just that!
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Hanging a Decorative Plate Wall Guide
Hanging a Decorative Plate wall is a bit of a process! This guide breaks it down into sections, including: where to find decorative plates, what to use to hang plates, how to style your wall, and assembling!
Where To Find Decorative Plates:
Before getting into where to find decorative plates, I am going to share some advice that has stuck with me over the years, especially when it comes to curating a vision and worry as to whether or not everything will “look good” altogether on your wall. One of the biggest pieces of advice when it comes to interior design that I’ve heard from multiple interior designers is to find pieces that YOU love and worry less about whether or not it will go together. At the end of the day, the pieces you will love will likely go together beautifully in your own unique, curated way. I think of my Mom’s and Step Dad’s home when I think of this, too, as they have cow rugs from their travels to South Africa, Ikea-built furniture, paintings of horses from Texas and beaches in Maine, and pottery from Italy. Somehow, you wouldn’t think it would all go together but it just does because it’s uniquely them.
Personally, on where to find plates for a Decorative Plate wall especially at an affordable price point, I am all for going the secondhand route via these two routes:
- Check out your local thrift stores or antique shops. Typically, local thrift stores will donate to charities and antique shops are locally owned small businesses. Either way, a win, win!
- Ask your family members and friends if they have any plates that they would like to pass along. I got several of my plates from family members who were looking to part with their antiques. This is an excellent way to continue your family’s and friend’s legacies within your own home!
Beyond the secondhand route, as a grand millennial, I adore brands such as Williams Sonoma, Lenox (which has a Kate Spade collection!), and Spode.
What To Use To Hang Plates:
To hang plates on my wall, I used two types of plate hangers from Amazon, which I have linked below:
It is also worth mentioning that if any of your plates are tin, then you can also use command strips.
How To Style Your Wall:
When it comes to styling your decorative plate wall, I would start with deciding where you want to hang your wall and how you want it to look. For my decorative plate wall, in full transparency, I just started hanging plates on the wall surrounding my canvas above my couch which was my biggest vision. Then, as I started to take a few steps back and visualize my progress of my decorative plate wall, I noticed that there could be some opportunities for symmetry on both ends with a white platter at the tail end of the display and a set of matching saucers on the lowest end. Not sure if I am making sense here, but I found the symmetry on all sides surrounding my painting to be the most effective way to style a Decorative plate wall. I also mixed in pops of color and tried to blend pinks and reds in with some whites and blues, too, to make it all oh so colorful. That way, at the end of the day, your decorative plate wall is clear and cohesive.
Assembling:
To assemble your decorative plate wall, be sure you have the following:
- Plate wall hangers
- A hammer
- A variety of nails in different sizes (you’ll need bigger nails for bigger plates and vice versa!)
Now, it’s time to get started with hanging your Decorative plate wall!!! Here are some pointers for assembling:
- To get started, as I was a bit nervous to hang plates on the wall for the first time ever, I started my putting a few nails into the wall at a distance using some plates to test out hanging them before actually putting plates on the wall. Trust me, I felt SO MUCH better and less nervous when putting some nails in the wall before actually hanging my plates!
- Be sure to assemble your plates and follow all instructions when it comes to getting your plates ready to hang on your wall. At the end of the day, we all want to have a beautiful decorative plate wall and we want to be sure that our plates look beautiful on our wall (and not break)!
- There’s nothing wrong with adapting your vision as you go. I surely adapted my vision quite a bit!
- Most importantly, HAVE FUN!!!
Wrap-Up:
I am so so so excited after over a year of gathering plates for my decorative plate wall to … finally have a Decorative plate wall to enjoy! Not only is a Decorative plate wall a unique way to show off your character and legacy, but it’s also something that your loved ones and guests can enjoy when they come over to your house, too. At the end of the day, my plate wall brings me so much joy and I think it turned out so beautifully and that’s what matters the most. I hope you feel the same way, too.
XOXO – Katie <3
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