How To Use Your China As Wall Decor
Almost everyone has some prized possession that they’ve stashed away in the deep dark recesses of their closet. Why not bring new life to older items by displaying them beautifully in your home? Julie Robbins, a Product Specialist at Replacements, Ltd, a supplier of vintage as well as current dinnerware, crystal, silver, and collectibles, shares how to use your china as wall decor.
Gone are the days when people would stash Grandma’s china in the attic. Now, they want to honor those heirlooms while also making those pieces blend in with their décor. “I think a lot of people are looking for new ways to express themselves in their home environment,” says Robbins. “So, instead of having one monolithic work of art, you can actually choose all these little works of art in colors that express a certain era.” In this case, it might be plates that were once family heirlooms.
But how do you actually go about displaying these items? “You can put all of those things together in a shape that fits your room,” advises Robbins. “It’s the right size and you can continue to add to it or change it out.” And because you’re putting the plates on the wall, rather than, say, your dining room table, you can be as creative as you’d like. “They’re really fun and you can have as much fun or more setting a wall hanging than you do setting your table,” says Robbins.
Before you begin putting plates onto the wall, you should have a design in mind. “I think it’s really important to gather all the pieces that you want to use together first,” advises Robbins. “Give yourself some time to see how they look together, which ones look great together.” And once you’ve decided on which plates will go where, it’s time to begin laying out your look. “I recommend laying it out and looking at it for a couple of days,” says Robbins. That way, you’ll have time to determine if the design is something that you truly love.
For a recent installation, Robbins used huge sheets of paper to first figure out how she wanted the design to appear. “We placed it all and climbed a ladder so that we could get a real idea of what it was going to look like when it was hanging on the wall,” she says. Similarly, you can roll out paper on the floor to serve as a temporary backdrop while you lay out your china to determine placement and design. After all, “Sometimes you have a couple that fight if they sit next to each other,” says Robbins.
Apart from being aesthetically pleasing, using your china as wall décor has an added benefit. “If you hang your grandmother’s plates on the wall or you choose to integrate some of your mother’s pattern into your powder room, you get to see that every day,” says Robbins. “You get to honor that memory every day, because it doesn’t just sit in a dark cabinet taking up space. You get to enjoy it.”
