The Moon in Mae: diy plate wall

About nine months ago, when planning my best friends baby shower, I started to have an appreciation for vintage teacups and plates. I decided to make soy candle teacups {each with matching saucers} as the party favors. This was quite the task. I spent three weekends of hunting, collecting, wheeling and dealing for teacup sets. With the help of my best friend's sister, we did successfully gather enough sets. However, it left me with a grown admiration for fine bone china.

Fun fact, "fine bone" china actually consists of cow bone. If you are interested to learn about the contents and process, I read a short article at Knowledge Nuts about them... the last paragraph is a bit crazy!

Back to my diy plate wall! With my new delight for not only teacups, I started noticing images on pinterest of plates being displayed on walls. Well, naturally I fell in love...

featured at {decor extra} & seriously worth checking out the entire featured home - GORGEOUS!

{Fancy Shack}

so loving the layering! {the endearing home}

obsessed with the mix of textures {on sutton place}

...and so my plate collection started with a gorgeous yellow rose
made in England plate I found at an antique thrift store.

I was starting with a completely blank wall in my dining room.

I decided to start my wall with these wooden medallions I picked up from Home Goods months ago and hadn't found a spot for yet. It seemed like the perfect way to add more texture to my wall display. These are the foundation of my display so I made to get them centered and leveled just right!

I picked up these plate hangers up at Hobby Lobby - they are also available at Amazon. They run $2 each. You wet the glue side and let it get sticky. Then you press it on the back of the plate according to how you want it hung. They do need to try overnight before attempting to hang them.

Then it was time to hang the plates. I had collected a variety of six of them. Four salad plates {which estimate around eight inches}, and two butter plates {which are each about 6 inches}. Each plate was collected from different places {antique shops, consignment markets, even Etsy}. My main goal was to collect an eclectic assortment, especially a variety of color.

I didn't do any measuring or leveling when hanging my plates. I winged it by eyeballing where I thought they should go. Because each piece is different, even slightly in the shape and size - I didn't see the need to obsess over precise placement.