I am almost embarrassed to suggest these ideas, but they came right to mind.....and I thought it couldn't hurt.....
Shoe boxes...any little box...varying sizes painted and embellished.
Too, those old wooden spools....with a plate, vintage/older plate....glued on top. It would have to be plainer rather than fancy plates, or it would compete with you Cottageware.
Too, maybe I am out of line, but do you really want to put such a lovely collection in the laundry room. Maybe your laundry room is open?
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Maddya

Make your own cake stands. Find some nice glass plates and some decorative bases (stemware works, vases, candles sticks) at the local thrift store or garage sale and glue them together with WELDER. It's a heavy duty contact adhesive. You'd be gluing the bottom center of the plates to the bottom center of the stemware, candle sticks or vases.
It's fun to play with the different glass pieces to see what you can come up with.

If you make the stands clear, or very plain, they won't 'fight' with the collection to be admired, but vintage ones will.

This is funny, I have a collection of birdhouses that I display on top of the kitchen cabinets. There is a little lip at the top of the cabinets, I suppose so things don't slip off easily. Some of my small birdhouses got lost behind it - only the tops showed. So I took some old books, covered them with fabric and set the birdhouses on them. Wooden blocks, styrofoam covered with fabric, heck even shallow plastic containers would work. The cake stand is a nice idea but would it be too high?

Hit the thrift stores and pick up pieces to make your own stands. You won't break the bank and you'll have something uniquely yours. And it'll be fun too!
I recommend using GE II silicone clear caulk to glue the pieces together.It's the same stuff used to caulk around windows, doors, etc. You can get it in either toothpaste sized tubes or large tubes used in caulk guns. Check the expiration dates on the tube, you want one a far away as possible. Don't buy old caulk! You can find GE II at most DIY stores.
Let's know what you decide to do!

I saw some wooden ones in Mary Engelbreit's magazine I think a few months ago. They took pieces of a decorative wooden post, cut them into sections and added a round wooden piece of top. There were pompoms hung around the exterior of the circle on some of them so that they hung down a bit. Very cute!

Thanks for all your great suggestions!
Maddya: I've actually been using covered boxes! Great minds, eh? I just want something that would show them off a little better. As for putting them in a laundry room, our laundry room is pretty nice and the room we go through to get to the garage, so we're in and out of it every day a lot. I totally know what you mean, though . . . if it were in the basement or garage, it would not be a good place for them.
Lydia, that's a good idea, although I don't think I'd be up for putting pompoms on them. Still, it sounds like a cool idea to display a number of different things. I love Mary Engelbreit's ideas, and am off to check out her online site. Thanks for that idea!
Carol: I took your advice and bought some glasses and a couple different sizes of plates. Haven't put them together yet, though. Thanks!
Lucy, good point! When I went looking for plates, glasses, etc., I stayed with white. Thanks!
Luna: I did the same thing above my kitchen cabs, with the decs out there. It works out great for big items. As for cake stands being too high, I think It'll be ok, but I won't put them all on stands.
NMgirl: It's great to hear from someone close to home! Good point about the expiration dates . . . thank you! I'm going to look up all the thrift stores in the Albuquqerque area and start hitting them. You're right, I'll bet if I take my time, I can find some cute ones to replace some of the white ones I'm making.
Thanks again for all your ideas. . . they helped me a lot! I'll post some pics when I finish for you all to see.