Debra Prinzing

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Great plates

November 8th, 2011

Here’s a photo of my dining room wall, where I’ve organized a medley of rounded objects, mostly plates and one vintage mirror that I inherited as a girl in the 1960s:

Debra’s dining room wall. The paint color is aptly named “Pod,” chosen by my design guru, Jean Zaputil.

This is what you do when a large wall needs to be filled and one does not own large artwork! Each of the pieces has a back-story. Clockwise, from left:

  1. Round gold-framed mirror, given to my parents and migrated to my possession since the 1960s.
  2. Dark purple pottery plate, a gift from my college roommate and her former girlfriend.
  3. Celadon plate, imprinted with a real lotus leaf, gift from same college roommate, who purchased it for me when we visited Lotusland.
  4. Red-and-teal platter, a gift from the owner of Fireworks Gallery, years ago, as a thank you after I wrote a story about her Pioneer Square shop.
  5. Another wonderful celadon plate, a gift from my friends Kathleen Brown and Sara Anderson when they visited us from DC years ago.
  6. Teal, white and purple platter, hand-formed and painted by the Berkeley artist Keeyla Meadows. I purchased it from her on a visit to her garden in 2008.
  7. Tiny vintage Majolica plate, purchased from an antique shop in Madison Park.

Let’s just say the men in my household were less than excited to see this installation. The day after I created my plate-platter vignette, my spouse left for work, saying: Please do NOT hammer any more nails into the wall today!

So the following weekend, we were in Chicago visiting our college-aged son for family weekend. We had breakfast at a cool neighborhood spot and what do you think I noticed on the wall there?! Check it out: 

Nice plates!
Many small plates add up to one large work of art!

I am definitely onto something. You can be, too. Plates or dishes, inexpensive plate hangers & a few nails. Voila! 

4 Responses to “Great plates”

  1. Kathy from Cold Climate Gardening Says:

    I am glad to hear I am not the only one whose menfolk don’t want anything hammered into the walls.

  2. Beckie Says:

    Even when you don’t need a large piece of art work, plates are so pretty. I’m “pinning” your picture on pinterest!

  3. Debbie Says:

    It’s really hard to decide if i’ll try this one. I don’t want to leave holes in my wall. Is there any way to do that without the nails? I am thinking of using cool plastic plates instead and use an adhesive in its back.

  4. Tina Says:

    Love this! Need to get off my hind end and put my plates up.

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