DIY Plate Collage

Turning our little place into a home has been quite the process this time around. We have a little more space than we've had in the past so there's so much I want to do, but at the same time we don't own our current place so I can't make as permanent of changes as I'd like to. It's also been somewhat of a long process because I like to do things on the cheap So a lot of the stuff in our home is DIY. DIY can definitely be more time consuming compared to just going out and buying some wall art, curtains, pillows etc. but it's A LOT of fun, and more personalized I think.

We have a little dining area/nook in our home, that was just plain boring. There are two big windows on 2 of the 3 walls, which is nice, but it was definitely still lacking. I'd been wanting to do a plate collage for a LONG time, so I finally just took a night and got it done. This is what I ended up with....


Simple yet cute and very easy to do. I've had a few people ask me how I knew what plates to pick, how I hung them etc. So I thought I'd share a step-by-step:) Keep in mind that you can expand this and make it much larger or even have a little row of just a few plates. Whatever floats your boat.

What You'll Need:

- Plates (of whatever color, shape, pattern and quantity you choose)

- Strips of fabric or ribbon about 3 inches long (You need one strip for each plate. This will be your hook to hang the plate).

- Hot glue gun and glue sticks

- Nails

STEP 1: Pick out your plates
I picked up a total of 11 plates from the always wonderful D.I. (second hand store) and spent a whopping $8! I love the D.I. I'm surprised they don't know me by name there. The awesome thing about this project is you can pick any color, pattern, or shape of dish that catches your eye and goes with your color scheme. I personally was looking for dishes for a blue, yellow, and white scheme. Here are a couple that I loved:

I love those scalloped edges

I don't mind "clashy" patterns as long as the combination of colors "feel" right to me. But I've been coming even a little more out of my comfort zone lately and clashing colors too (pillow post to come).

Another thing I'm REALLY into right now is texture! I look for it when I'm shopping for fabrics or trying to add a little something extra to any project really. So I kind of felt like I could make the collage more interesting with not only colors and patterns but with textures as well.

I FELL IN LOVE with this blue plate when I first saw it, aren't those edges beautiful?

This one was fun too. I love how much freedom you can have with this project!

Step 2: Prep Plates for Hanging:

The first thing I did when I got home was wash and dry plates. Dry the back of your plates really well. There are many different ways to hang plates on a wall: special hooks, those lovely metal plate holder things etc. I wanted a really clean look, so I cut some strips of (thick polyester) fabric about 3 inches long. You could obviously use some ribbon as well, I just happened to be out. Take the ends of the ribbon together and place them on a dot of hot glue on the back of the plate(Be very careful to not burn yourself!). I put my glue spot about an inch underneath the little edge on the bottom of the plate. After pressing the ribbon edges into the glue I took my glue gun and and covered the ends of the ribbon with glue as well for extra strength. And now you've got yourself a little hook to hang your plate.

It's not the prettiest sight, but no ones going to see it anyway and it gets the job done:)

Step 3: Hanging Your Plates

A lot of people have a different process when hanging/organizing a group of items on a wall. Lots of people will trace the item; in this case a plate, onto paper, cut them out and tape them to the wall to see how it will look. I on the other hand am not a very patient person and don't take the time to do that. Maybe my projects would look better if I took the time....hmm. I just organized my plates on my rug in different ways and then took a picture of each idea. Once I decided on the one I liked best, I measured/figured out where the center of my wall was, and then took the center plate and worked my way outward from there by looking at the picture that I took of the grouping I'd picked. But you can do whatever way makes most sense to you:)

Again like I said before, with this project you have LOTS of freedom, so you can organize your collage ANY way you'd like! I wanted an organized yet not organized/perfect looking collage if that makes any sense at all. It's like at first glance it looks symmetrical, but then your brain starts telling you that it's not. I like that. I'm weird.

This project is a lot of fun! It's great for someone who wants a decorating project but not something that's super hard, and it's nice for someone who who wants to take it a step further because you can spend A LOT of time getting creative with your plate selection. I think the best thing about this project is that there is no perfect way to have your collage look. What YOU personally like is all that matters!

And this is what I like:)