Last week, I had a luck-of-a-lifetime stay in a 16th-Century villa in Tuscany. I'd love to show you all my photos, but this plate wall seemed particularly Apartment Therapy-esque. We've discussed countless ways to make hanging plates look modern: our favorite plate cluster walls, the best plate hangers, spray-painted plates, and my very own winter plate wall. This old-world display makes no attempts to be modern, and is all the better for it...
Villa Ugo in Cortona, Italy, is full of such timeless and tasteful wonders, and I was lucky enough to eat many delicious meals while gazing at this wall. Of course, the thing that really makes this display is the amazing ceiling. The plates are beautiful and the collection is impressive, but the juxtaposition of delicately painted ceramics and ancient, solid wood is what makes it so perfect. I could buy plates 'till the cows come home but there's no way I could recreate this in my California studio apartment. Still, it's nice to dream, and maybe someday I'll live in an old (but probably not old by Italian standards) house and will be able to rock a similar look.
(Image: Tess Wilson. Please forgive the slightly strange cropping of this photo. We spent the week preparing for & recovering from a wedding, and just out of the shot are favors-in-progress, piles of cameras, bachelorette party swag, and everybody's nail polish.)
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We did a plate wall in a much smaller area above our living room mantle as something just a little more unexpected. You can see photos on our blog mid way down in the 6th row of before and afters (http://www.oldtownhome.com/2012/1/17/Nine-Years-and-Counting-Happy-House-iversary/) or on this photo from our AT home tour (http://gallery.apartmenttherapy.com/photo/wendy-and-alex/item/302107).
There was a ton of eBaying, measuring, swearing, and sweating involved in getting them just right, but I think it worked out nicely. We also have a small urn and a few egg cups that match sitting on the mantle.
Whoa! If that was Paul and Jennifer's wedding (which I could not attend :( ), small world! Or maybe Tuscany destination weddings are just currently the rage this spring for SF couples...
Love these old-world wall plates (especially all the blue and white) , and though I do have a nice collection of Spanish and Italian ceramics, I have no more wall space. I read somewhere once that you have to decide between bookcases, windows and display walls, and my house is maxed out on all three.
If you do hang plates, may I recommend the following type of hanger, which I just discovered. I have no connection with the company, I just think they're great.
http://www.amazon.com/Invisible-English-Hanger-Disc-5-5-Plates/dp/B001FVG25K/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1337043939&sr=8-2
They work, they don't show from the front, and I think they must be better for the plates than the metal kind that shows on the front. I always worried about damaging plates when I used the old fashioned metal hangers.
"This old-world display makes no attempts to be modern..."
I would respectfully disagree. While the plates themselves are very traditional, I find the slightly haphazard arrangement to be less so. A less modern approach would entail more symmetry.