7 Ways to Use Vintage Plates Around Your Home

Vintage plates are so beautiful, and if you’ve been collecting them, it’s time to take them out of your cabinet and put them to use around your home. Here are some of my favorite ideas.

I’ve been building up a collection of vintage plates for years and I love to find new ways to use them around my home. I mostly collect blue, brown, and green antique transferware plates, which are beautiful to display for decorative purposes, but which can also be quite useful in so many ways. I’ve actually been using them in so many places around my home that I recently discovered that I’ve used up my entire collection and need to start hunting for more. Thrifting and antiquing for china, stoneware, and ironstone isn’t a task I dread in any way, so I’m up for the challenge. These pieces tend to come back into style in a big way every few years, and then they become a little difficult to find in thrift stores, flea markets, and antique shops. If you find one you love, definitely scoop it up because you’ll always find a way to use it around your home. Here are some of my favorite ways to use vintage plates!

More decorative room ideas: Top Ten Thrift Store Home Decor Finds That You Should Never Pass Up

Use Vintage Plates As a Soap Dish

Antique plates make the sweetest soap dishes, bringing an unexpected hit of pattern and color to your bathroom or kitchen counter. A small transferware bowl or a bowl from your china set also works beautifully for this purpose.

As a Plant Saucer

Antique ironstone dishes make the most charming plant saucers for under your terracotta planters. Try this idea indoors with your houseplants, or even outside on your porch, deck, or patio in the summer. Large dinner plates or platters work well for larger planters, while I use saucers and salad plates inside.

Secondhand decorating: Styling Ideas Spotted at Antique Markets to Steal For Your Home

Under a Candle

Tucking a candle into small bowl or setting it onto a plate on your coffee table or console table is a styling trick that becomes even more beautiful when you introduce a beautifully patterned dish into the mix. The magic is in the layering and the mixing of patterns and textures, so try combining a clear glass jar candle with a patterned dish inside on top of a stack of books or inside a woven tray for a beautiful vignette.

As a Jewelry Tray

I’ve been using this sweet little blue and white chinoiserie dish as a jewelry tray for years. A little saucer or a butter pat dish is the perfect catch-all for tiny everyday items and they create such a pretty spot on your bathroom counter, bedside table, or vanity.

Displayed on a Shelf

Plates displayed on shelves are a mainstay of traditional and cottage-style decor. Plates are a natural fit for hutches and open shelves in kitchens and dining rooms, but they can work beautifully tucked into bookshelves and displayed on living room built-ins as well. Place plates behind groupings of other smaller items to anchor them in the same way that you would use a framed print or painting for shelf decor. I added these small ironstone plates behind a pair of mismatched vintage creamers to make them feel like a grounded grouping instead of just clutter.

Classic home decoration ideas: 7 Things Every Traditional Room Needs to Feel Complete

For Food

Mismatched vintage plates work beautifully as everyday dishes and make every meal feel a little more special. I especially love using small antique blue and white dishes for snacks and desserts. Even a healthy snack feels a bit fancy when it’s served this way.

On a Wall

A classic plate wall is what most people think of when they consider using vintage plates for decoration. I love my unexpected plate wall in our ensuite bathroom, tucked away in the corner behind the shower curtain. A plate wall can be made up of dozens of plates, covering an entire wall of a room, or it can be just two or three favorites hung up together in a small section of open wall.

To hang plates on a wall, you can use these inexpensive adhesive hangers, or these wire hangers, which allow you to remove the plate and use it for something else later.

How do you use vintage plates around your home? Do you have a clever idea that I’ve missed here?

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