plates!

Earlier this year, my sister and I were brainstorming about how we could beautify her Dining Room. She had seen our installation at Found of a set of eight 'Birds of India' plates by Haviland and liked it. She is a traditional gal, my sister.

Heather (my sis) has a lovely set of Mottahedeh plates in the 'Tobacco Leaf' pattern and we thought those could be a great starting point for the design of the room. As you can see, the pattern of her china is very colorful and provides a wealth of options for the other fabrics, wallpaper, and paint colors that we are in the midst of selecting for her Dining Room.

We agreed that these would be perfect for a blank wall in her Dining Room but that other plates (with a different pattern) should be mixed-in to give a little dimension to the grouping. We made a date to meet that Sunday at the Alameda flea market and low and behold, she found these guys.

Which led to this.

The design of the room is still underway (you can see we narrowing our selection of grass cloth wallpapers at the moment) but eventually the room will be complete (and we will post a photo).

This leads me to the reason I am writing today. Readers, if you are lucky enough to have some china, don't let it gather dust stowed away in your cabinets or under your bed. Head over to your local hardware store, purchase some plate hangers and hang away. Also, keep in mind your plates do not need to be expensive or fancy. Don't be worried if something looks a little crooked or you do not have a full set to display....sometimes this is what makes an installation look all the more lovely. Take comfort in the image below of a free-flowing arrangement by blogger (albeit a retired one), Bluelines. They went for a more organic, mis-matched feel. Isn't it wonderful?

-Caitlin