Home decorating: hanging plates

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The joy of collection lies partly in the pleasure of acquisition and partly in the exhibition of your treasures. Plates are ideal for creating a mounted wall display.

Follow these steps to hang plates:

1. Arrange the plates on a piece of cardboard to work out a layout. Mark the positions on the cardboard with a small hole for each plate. Place the cardboard against the wall and push a pencil through each hole to create a guide for attaching hooks.
2. Using wire cutters, cut 2 pieces of wire 3 inches longer than the diameter of your plate. Bend one piece into a ‘V’ shape. Make a loop in the centre of your second piece of wire (this will become the hanger). Put one end of the ‘V’ shaped wire through the hanging loop (it should hang upside down from the loop). Twist the ‘V’ shaped wire to secure it in this position.
3. Place the wire on the back of your plate, positioning the top of the loop to the top of the plate base (not the rim). Holding the wires in position, wrap them tightly around the edge of the plate rim to hook around the front of the plate.
4. Clip ends of wire to a uniform length. Using needle-nose plyers, twist the ends to form a decorative loop. Hang.

Decorating tip
Use a medium-weight wire, such as 0.8mm, to hang plates no bigger than dinner plate size.

In living colour
Create an elegant aesthetic by following a simple colour palette and using pattern to create interest and variety. We’ve taken a cool blue as our starting point and enlivened it with flashes of gold and the intricate beauty of the classic willow pattern.

Styling: Aimee Jones. Photography: Andrew Lehmann.