No longer the preserve of your grandmother's dining room cabinet, decorative plates are hot right now, as it were. Think beyond having your crockery exclusively white and plain, or a plate being just a practical piece of kitchenware to be taken for granted - this is a round, mini canvas with potential.
A hugely popular decorative trend right now is creating a room focal point using wall plates (check out Paul Thomas' fantastic, easy-to-hang melamine plates at Supernice.com for ideas), and a range that would look just as good on a wall as it would on the table is Genevieve Lethu's Le Potager, part of the French kitchenware brand's new spring collection. Sold in boxed sets of four dinner, dessert or soup plates, each piece is decorated with a beautiful illustration of kitchen garden fruits and vegetables - fresh, plump pears, apples, beetroots and carrots just picked from the ground - in delightfully vintage, muted shades of mustard, sage and aubergine. Almost too pretty to cover up with the real thing, they certainly should not be confined to the cupboard.
Le Potager set of four dinner plates, Dh189; set of four dessert plates, Dh139; set of four soup plates, Dh129. Genevieve Lethu, Wafi Mall (04 344 8810) and Mercato Mall, Dubai (04 324 5546).
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