Decorative Ceramic Wall Plates
Hand-Painted in Jerusalem Since 1922 · 8.7 in (22 cm) · $60 each

A Plate Wall That Isn’t Blue and White

Most ceramic plate wall decor in American homes comes from one of three traditions: Dutch Delft, Mexican Talavera or Italian Deruta. Armenian ceramics are a fourth, and they look like none of the others — cobalt and turquoise carried over deep-fired white, with animals and foliage drawn in a line that comes out of illuminated manuscripts rather than folk pottery.

A plate wall reads best when you vary the diameter but keep the palette tight. Pick two or three colours that repeat across the group, and lay the whole arrangement out on the floor before you drill anything. A vertical column of three 8.7 in plates suits a narrow hallway or the wall beside a doorway; mix in an 11.4 in or a 15.75 in plate and the group stops looking like a set and starts looking collected.

These plates hold their own against plain, textured backgrounds — limewashed walls, bare plaster, deep green, dark blue — which let the pattern carry the room instead of competing with it.

Decorative Wall Plates for the Kitchen

The kitchen is where these plates do their best work, for a practical reason: they are food-safe, so they come off the wall. Every Balian plate is finished with lead-free, cadmium-free European glazes and fired above 1,000°C (1,832°F), which vitrifies the surface. They are dishwasher-safe, though hand washing with a soft cloth and a mild detergent will keep the colours at their best for longer.

Three placements that work: a run of three or five plates above open shelving, where they fill the awkward band between the top shelf and the ceiling; a single plate centred above a range hood, treated like a piece of framed art; or a pair flanking a window, which is the easiest arrangement to get right because symmetry does the work for you.

Odd numbers look deliberate and even numbers look symmetrical. Four plates in a square grid is the one arrangement that tends to look like a showroom — avoid it.

Bird Plates for the Wall: Peacocks, Gazelles and the Tree of Life

If you have come looking for decorative bird plates for the wall, most of what you will find is either mass-produced transferware or vintage porcelain from the 1970s. These are neither. The birds on our plates come from a specific tradition — the Armenian ceramic workshops that came to Jerusalem in 1919 — and the same motifs have been painted here for a century.

Three of the plates on this page carry birds. 2209 Floral Peacock and 22010 Blue Forest Peacock are both peacocks, one set in flowers and one in deep blue foliage; 2204 Gazelle & Bird pairs a bird with a gazelle in the older manuscript style. The peacock in this tradition is not decorative filler — it is a symbol of renewal, and it is the motif our painters take longest to complete.

The rest of the collection runs to gazelles and deer drawn mid-stride and usually paired, roses and tulips, and leaf and forest patterns, so a group of bird plates hangs well against them without the wall becoming repetitive.

Because each bird is drawn freehand rather than transferred, the plate you receive will differ slightly from the photograph — in the tilt of a head, the spread of a tail, the exact blue of a wing. That is the point of a hand-painted plate.

How to Hang a Ceramic Plate on the Wall

You have three sensible options, and one to avoid.

Adhesive disc hangers are the best choice for a plate you may want to take down and use. A small vinyl disc is wetted and pressed to the back of the plate, left to cure for a day, and hangs from a nail. Nothing is drilled and nothing is clamped to the rim.

Spring-wire plate hangers — the sprung frames that grip the edge — are quick and secure, but the arms are visible from the front on a plate this size, so choose a finish that disappears against the pattern rather than a bright brass.

Plate stands and picture ledges avoid the wall entirely, and are the right answer in a rental or on a plaster wall you would rather not drill.

The one to avoid is a self-adhesive hook stuck directly to the glaze. The glaze is smooth and vitrified, the plate weighs more than it looks, and the failure mode is the plate on the floor.

For spacing, keep 2 to 3 inches between plates in a tight cluster, or a consistent 4 to 6 inches for a looser gallery arrangement. Hang the centre of the group at eye level, around 57 to 60 inches from the floor, and let the plates sit above and below that line rather than centring every plate on it.

Sizes and Prices

All three sizes are painted in the same patterns, in the same studio, by the same hands. Prices are in US dollars, and the minimum order is two plates in any combination of sizes and patterns.

8.7 in (22 cm)	The plates on this page	$60 each
11.4 in (29 cm)	Larger display plates	See the 11.4 in plates
15.75 in (40 cm)	Statement plates and chargers	See the 15.75 in plates

Shipping to the United States

We ship door-to-door to all 50 US states and quote in US dollars. Two 8.7 in plates travel together for $80, insured, with DHL. Delivery normally takes one to two weeks from dispatch.

Ordering more than two plates lowers the shipping cost per plate significantly, because they travel in the same carton. If you are building a plate wall, tell us how many you want and we will quote the delivery before you commit.

Each plate is wrapped individually and packed in a double-walled carton. Breakage in transit is rare; if a plate does arrive damaged, send us a photograph and we will replace it.