Do you have a plate wall? How best to hang them?

August 31, 2022 8:53 AM

Because I am extremely on-trend and because I have a lot of misc vintage ceramics, I want to make a plate wall. But I don't want my precious, precious vintage plates to fall and shatter. How best to hold them on the wall?

I am happy to use adhesive to attach a hanger to the plate as long as that's secure. I can also buy plate holders, but some of what I'm hoping to put on the wall is deep and irregularly shaped.

This is my house so all options are on the table, although I am not envisioning a plate rail for this purpose.

What do you recommend?

posted by Frowner to Home & Garden (8 answers total)

I had been using the kind of plate hangers that use adhesive...until one plate fell down and broke. Now I'm using this type of plate hanger, which you can get in gold/white/maybe other colors. And I know it seems like those little hooks that come over the edge will detract from the look of your plate, but in reality become invisible straight away. No accidents or problems with this type of hanger at all, and I have an entire wall of pretty plates. (Also this type of hanger comes in many different sizes, so you can probably accommodate your deep/irregular items.)
posted by BlahLaLa at 9:03 AM on August 31, 2022 [4 favorites]

If you don't intend to go from wall to table regularly, my fancy ceramicist friend turned me on to these disc hangers. You have to soak in water to take them off and then you can re-use the hanger again and again.
posted by wowenthusiast at 9:13 AM on August 31, 2022 [4 favorites]

I have some of the spring-based ones like BlahLaLa mentions. If you wanted to upgrade from there, the local history museum uses something like these.
posted by box at 10:31 AM on August 31, 2022

This winter I purchased a lot of ceramics from a vendor at a craft fair. She has been selling her work for 20 years and told me to get the disc hangers wowenthusiast linked to. I did and they work perfectly! I would highly recommend them and plan on using them for future pieces.
posted by lucy.jakobs at 11:06 AM on August 31, 2022

I have a background in ceramics. The spring-based variety can cause eventual cracks or even breakage if the "squeeze" pressure is high, and more especially if the plate has fine cracks you might not realize are already there, so make sure you don't tighten overmuch. Large plates and platters are even more at risk. If there is gilding on the rim the little metal clasps may damage or even wear it off. If it's possible to have a secure system that doesn't squeeze the plate, that is probably best.

Have you considered installing a picture rail or shallow shelf with a raised rim where you could display a number or plates? The plate back rests against the wall, and the bottom rests securely against the rim. There would be no pressure applied to the plate, and no adhesive to worry about.
posted by citygirl at 11:30 AM on August 31, 2022 [1 favorite]

You can put up a molding that will let the plate sit with a slight lean back, then use Scotch Brand museum adhesive on the top edge to stick them to the wall. The museum goo, as I call it is great, holds well, won't tear off the paint.
posted by Oyéah at 11:55 AM on August 31, 2022

BlahLaLa has the correct, and traditional, solution. My mom hung umpteen plates (which I still have) on the walls and used exactly that sort of hanger. She never had a plate fall off the wall.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:59 PM on August 31, 2022

I have always used the wire-spring braces, like BlahLaLa linked to, to hang plates. Never had any casualties. Citygirl's warning is worth heeding, but just make sure you get the correct size and don't try to stretch a smaller brace over a larger plate. You can get braces with a vinyl or plastic coating on the prongs to keep them from scratching.
posted by amusebuche at 10:34 PM on August 31, 2022