"I'm not sure throwing out your old dishes is wise."

It is when you're running out of space to keep them.

I've collected about 1/2 of my Heath from eBay as well as some seconds from the factory - So much more affordable and I've been able to get interesting discontinued pieces for my collection as well!

Such fickle consumers we are. Just as you felt bored by your old wedding china you could very easily feel bored by your new (old) eclectic china in few years time. Perhaps investing in china storage solutions is your best bet.

I would worry that in another 4 years I might want a simpler look again and regret getting rid of the original dishes. Fashions change - and people's tastes rarely stay the same over time. You might go off the retro, mismatched look in the future. I love it too, for now, but I know I wasn't into it 10 years ago. I'd hold on to the originals and save up for the new ones, just in case. That's probably also motivated by the fear of my mother's reaction if she turned up for dinner and I had swapped out all my wedding china......

I have had this idea of collecting Eva Zeisel for Hallcraft (Fantasy pattern) dish set for ever - there is always a decent array of things on Ebay, but mostly my hesitation is about the room in my kitchen/dining room!! I still like the dishes I got for my wedding, but it would be so nice to have a fun vintage set to use to change it up a bit!

Are those glasses Hazel Atlas?

My 20-yr-old wedding china gets trotted out occasionally. I'd never toss it, but I also cannot resist a vintage thrift treasure. Why not have both?

Simple answer... get plain, modern white dinner plates and bowls which you keep forever and which are hard to get sick of. Mix in mismatched thrift store finds for salad and dessert plates. They are cheap and easy to find - and you can stack 'em high in the cupboards, mix them up on the table -- and still have a clean minimalist look when you want one.
pam h
howtorunyourlife.blogspot.com

Hi, It's Amanda here! :)

My real problem was that I received a set of bright red ceramic dishes. I actually didn't get any wedding china at all. I don't use the plates I did receive any more, as I've phased them out and they are in storage at my parents. Now I actually do have some white plates that I coordinate with my funky thrifted finds. I love it. And because they were inexpensive, I would have no trouble changing it out in ten years if I get bored.

I think of it as a borrow-and-trade system with the thrift stores. I definitely wouldn't consider myself as a typical fickle consumer, as I really only buy from thrift stores, and always give back to them.

I had the exact opposite issue. I got really sick of my vintage pyrex dinnerware set and my collection of vintage mugs, so I went out and got a matching (dishwasher safe) set of dinnerware. Maybe I'll get sick of it eventually and pull out my eclectic vintage stuff again, but as the years pass I find myself wanting new mixing bowls instead of my many vintage Pyrex sets, and new mugs that can hold more coffee. Those vintage ones are tiny!

I would keep your lovely dinnerware and mix and match. I love to buy 4 dinner plates of different types, example 4 black square plates, 2 black pasta bowls. Different food looks good on different plates. I have plates to eat tacos on, plates to eat steak on. You get the idea. Have fun!!

I buy serving pieces on vacation. Each one has a story, and is a lovely reminder of a place I visited.

I absolutely second Pam H's comments. We have Pottery Barn Great White dishes, and they are the best thing we bought from our wedding gifts of money. I am indeed a fickle consumer who changes her mind and tastes, but I will never tire of these quality basics, which haven't chipped - not a single piece - in five years, and we hand wash every day! Food looks best served on white. I change up the table with vintage serving dishes, napkins and other colorful small plates and such. My table looks different every time we have guests over and it's a joy to mix vintage with white!

Right now, I have a lot of colorful Le Creuset stoneware, vintage Pyrex/Corning. I like white plates, I currently have Martha Stewart dinner and salad plates. Since space is an issue in my apartment, if I run across a pattern I really love, mostly I buy salad plates. I like them since I can use them for snacks, meals, and serving small amounts, like tomatoes, etc.

I'm like you - can't believe I wanted all white matchy-matchy just a few years ago. Now I appreciate pieces with character. I might change my mind again in a few years, but like you, I'll just bring these back to the thrift store and switch them out for something different. I get such a rush from hitting the household items shelves in Value Village. Not the finest china shops give me that feeling. :)

Eight years later and I gave all of my wedding registry JCPenney Fiesta Ware to a younger friend with a new apartment and have curated quite a happy set of vintage dishware myself. I only bought what I loved and everything color coordinates or has a theme such as all floral etched glass. Sure my tastes will change but why not enjoy what I have instead of using something other people bought for me because I had no real awareness of my style eight years ago. The dishware will probably get passed off to another vintage loving friend and I will probably still find what I love on a limited budget.

I love those white printed juice glasses. so pretty! my collection is similar to what pam h mentioned. I started out with just white fiestaware and an almost vintage looking ivory china pattern from crate and barrel (from our registry). I have slowly mixed in all kinds of fun vintage stuff... i love that i have vintage fiesta, milk glass, juice glasses, my grandma's floral tea cups and saucers, vintage china, and pyrex in a rainbow of colors, but it all still goes with my white/ivory basics. My only problem is that now my husband has banned me from buying any more "glass" items at flea markets and yard sales, lol. apparently my collection is getting a little TOO big.

In my mid-twenties I decided life is too short to wait for mister right. So I bought nice white china plates in Chinatown for $.60 a piece, and glass salad and dessert places at Crate and Barrel Outlet for a buck each. Smart move, when Mr. Right came along instead of registering for dishes we registered for the 23 volume Oxford English Dictionary we had both always wanted.

Mixed with great serving pieces, against a black table cloth, with a nice centerpiece, my dinner parties always look great and we have plenty good reading ahead of us for the rest of our lives.

I'm a bit... well... puzzled.

First, by the "If I don't like it in ten years, I'll just buy some new plates". It may be because I'm French and we give a huge importance to our food, but this way of thinking I don't like. A really nice china, well made and well thought, is not supposed to age. And I don't like buying things with this state of mind.

Personally, I have a china we registered for (18 plates ! Thank you huge family), that is both of an incredible quality, and a modern, plain, beautiful design. While the plates are beautiful, the fact that they are all textured white with a tiny bit of platinum allows them to perform like they are supposed to: by showing of the food I cook in a modern, tasteful and discreet way.

For everyday use, I have a set of funkier plates I bought when I was 18. I still love it, but it has a lot of cracks now. Unfortunately, it has been discontinued, so I cannot buy plates to replace the broken ones. I guess I'll be on the (careful) hunt for plates in a few years. But while I love hunting for china, I never do it lightly, because we use them everyday at home. But up until now, no regret whatsoever.

@thorndale i like your style!

I decided to buy a whole set of white dishes so that i can throw in a funky peice here and there to add a bit of character but not have a complete whacky collection of old mismatched peices.

Amanda,
I was instilled for a love of thrift and kitchy housewares, before I had a home to make with them. My first live-in love and I enjoyed thrifting together, I, hunting Fransiscan china, he vintage bar ware. Together our home was so deliciously eclectic.
I remember him asking if it would be more proper, if we had all matching kitchenware.
I told him our mixture of scoured scores were a set all their own.
It's a philosophy I will always live by.

I swear by charity shops for wonderful treasures! I love my collection of vintage Denby Ware, made up of pieces of various '70's designs, which I've managed to collect over the last eight years. They're so durable, as well as attractive! I've also collected Hornsea storage jars (which again feed my passion for '70's retro ware!) and some odd pieces of hand-thrown pottery. I can't imagine owning a complete set of dinnerware and missing out on the pleasure of variety. That said, I do have one 'set', my treasured '60's orange/white melamine picnic ware, which I discovered at a car boot sale last summer, for the princely sum of £3.