Want to know how to hang plates on the wall? I’m sharing my tips & tricks and the plate hangers that I used to get the job done right!
For months I kept my beautiful new plates sitting in a cabinet where they weren’t used or seen. And the big bare wall in my dining room? It stayed bare. Because honestly the whole idea of designing and hanging a decorative plate wall intimidated me. But I finally took the leap and hauled my plates out of the cabinet and hung them up on our dining room wall:
It turned out to be one of my favorite dining room wall decor ideas! The trickiest part was figuring out the how-tos of hanging the plates so I thought I’d share what worked best for me, what’s worked for others, and why you may want to choose one method of hanging plates over the other (post includes commissionable links; for more information, see my full disclosure statement {here}).
Step 1: Figure Out How You Want to Arrange Your Plates
Take all the plates that you’re thinking about using in your plate wall and lay them out on the floor. If you have space constraints for the wall that they’ll be hanging on, it helps to put some painter’s tape on the floor to mark the max width and height that you have to work with. Arrange and rearrange until you figure out a design that you love!
All of my plates are from Juliska – the ones with the printed scenes are from their Country Estate collection in Flint color that you can find {here}. I also have two of {these dinner plates} from their Berry & Thread collection, and multiple different sized plates from their Jardins du Monde collection {here}. The center platter is the Jardins du Monde grande charger that is no longer available but can sometimes be found on eBay {here}.
Step 2: Trace Each Plate on Paper
I wanted to see the arrangement up on the wall before nailing in 20+ hangers and realizing that I should have shifted it up or down or changed some plates around so I traced the plates on kraft paper and cut each of them out. Once each plate was cut out, I drew both a horizontal and vertical line through the center of each paper plate, which helped me line them up evenly on the wall using a level.
I wish I was a girl who could just wing it and not worry if things don’t line up quite right but I know myself enough to know that it would bug me if the arrangement was visibly “off”!
Step 3: Tape Your Templates to the Wall
Once I had my plate templates arranged and level on the wall, I taped them to the wall to make sure they wouldn’t fall down overnight (I was doing my hanging the next day). And then when I was getting my girls their breakfast the next morning, I heard a rustling in the dining room and found them in a heap on the floor. Nooo!
I had used Delicate Surfaces painter’s tape and it didn’t hold. Ugh. Lesson learned. I redid the arrangement but this time used regular painter’s tape and put a tiny nail through the center of each plate just to be extra sure we didn’t have a repeat incident.
Step 4: Figure Out the Best Plate Hangers for You and Hang Them Up!
My original plan was to hang my plates using {these} Disc Hangers, which are adhesive discs that you adhere to the back of your plates. The advantages of the Disc Hangers are that they allow your plates to hang flat against the wall and they are invisible once you hang them. Unfortunately, I realized that most of my plates have a raised pattern on the back – definitely not a good surface for adhering a flat Disc Hanger.
The other disadvantages of the Disc Hangers are that you can’t easily remove them to use the plates. I wanted to be able to take some of the platters off of my wall to use them for serving food at parties every now and then and the Disc Hangers wouldn’t allow me to do that.
Also, according to the reviews, some people have had issues with their plates falling off the wall when using them. But there are others who have used them with beautiful results (and no broken plates!) such as Emily of Timeless Paper who used them to hang this gorgeous plate wall over her bed (don’t you love it?!):
Since the Disc Hangers weren’t going to work for me, I ended up hanging my plates using Tripar’s white vinyl coated plate hangers found {here}. Beware that they do “run small” – my 9″ plates did not fit the 7″-9″ hanger size – I had to use the 10″-14″ size.
Since they are vinyl coated, they won’t scratch the plates like plain wire hangers can and I love that when you use this type of plate hanger, you can easily remove the plates from the wall and use them. The key to working with these hangers is to bend the top of the hanger so that your plate will lay flat on the wall once hung.
The best way to do this is to first attach the plate hanger to the plate and lie the plate on a flat surface. The top of the hanger should (barely) touch the flat surface that your plate is lying on. If it doesn’t, take the hanger off the plate, bend it, and place it back on to see if it’s where you need it to be.
Once all of your plates have hangers, it’s time to get them up on the wall! I used {these OOK picture hooks}. To figure out where to hang them, hook your OOK hook onto the wire hanger that is attached to your plate and measure the distance from the top of the plate down to where the nail will go into the OOK hook. Transfer this measurement to your plate template and gently tap the OOK hook nail in just a bit.
Then remove the template from the wall, put the nail through the OOK hook, and hammer it in at the same spot that you tapped it into moments ago. Now hang your plate!
Repeat.
Our plate wall is definitely my favorite thing about our dining room! You can take a tour to check the entire space out including a bunch of fun “before” and “after” pics (it wasn’t too pretty when we moved in) {here}! Also check out my post with tips on decorating your dining room.
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Allie Orange says
I ❤️love❤️ this plate wall and would love to replicate something like this in my dining room. First step, ditch the chair rail. (Just read your post about that.)
I am wondering what other art you used in your dining room to go along with this?
Your blog is wonderful! Really, my best ideas come from here for home decor.
sophie says
Wonderful display! Can’t wait to try it! A friend of mine recommended using hangers from a company called Display Buddie. They work perfectly and I enjoyed helping a small business!
Dana says
This is a beautiful wall! I have decided I want to mis a wall of grey/back plates with white just like this one. Is there anyway you would tell me the names of the plates that you used? Or at least the grey/black print and the one white in the middle? It would be much appreciated!!
Dana says
I do see your comment about the white plates and where to find them! Sorry I am new to Pinterest so figuring out how it all works!! Thanks!
Jill says
Thanks for passing on the idea of tracing the template & taping to the wall. I have always loved hanging plates, especially in the kitchen.
I have tried many different hangers, & my choice are the 3M strips that are the hook & eye like side of velcro. When the wall & plate are pressed together they are locked in. I’ve used them on a few plates since they were a new concept & have never been disappointed.
Tracie Roberts says
I love the off white plates you hung! What is the brand and where are they from?
Kris Jarrett says
Hi Tracie – they’re from Juliska’s Jardins du Monde collection. I got mine at their warehouse sale but you can find them online here -> https://rstyle.me/+s1-EBtwJotOW5c978Zd5yw (affiliate link)
James Harrington says
A masterful job of hanging plates! And it sure is beautiful. I just decided to hang my antique plates on the wall and was looking for somewhere to buy hangers online. Your info page here just popped up. It was perfect! I never thought of the trick of bending the hanger before – great idea! And the paper patterns – you’re quite an engineer! I’ve hung plates before and found they were too low and had to pull nails out and repound. An ordeal! You have a much better way of doing it.
Bonnie says
how would you hang a rectangular plate (platter)?????
Kris Jarrett says
There’s no reason you couldn’t use these hangers for rectangular platters too!
ashea says
Very helpful! I especially needed more hanging device options, was on the verge of planning to make my own, which I don’t have time for right now. Thank you!
Stephanie says
Hi there. I’m having difficulty adjusting the top part of the hanger. How did you make this work? Thank you!
Bernadette says
Hi, it looks amazing! Do you know the “depth” of your plates? I’m planning on hanging a bowl (“depth” = 9 cm) on the wall, and was wondering if I can do it the way you have done, or if I have to do it differently.
Kind regards,
B
Kris Jarrett says
Thank you! My plates aren’t any deeper than 2″ – you may be able to make the plate hangers work with a deeper bowl if you attach an extra piece of picture wire to the hanger once it’s on the bowl and hang it from the wire.
Marliese says
I’m so glad I came across this. I never knew you should/could bend the plate hangers to make the plate lie flat against the wall. I always thought mine didn’t hang right, but I was fearful of using the discs due to possibility of falling off. My plates were not flush to the wall and I always thought they looked weird. Anyway, I bent the hangers and voila! Now they are not jutting out and look so much better!! Thank you for that tip!
Marliese
Kris Jarrett says
I’m so glad that little tip worked for you!!
Jessica says
I love the plates where did you buy them?
Kris Jarrett says
Thank you – they are all made by Juliska (Jardins du Monde and Country Estates lines) – they are based near me and have an annual tent sale where I got them for a steal!
Dianna says
I would love to talk to you regarding the white and black Asian plates hung.
Kris Jarrett says
Those are Juliska Country Estates dinnerware!
Sheila says
Great idea
Brenda Sorensen says
I need to hang a plate that is 20 inches diameter and weighs 16 pounds….where would I find a hanger big enough??