BUILDING TABLESCAPES FOR HOSTING
Mastering the art of tablescaping allows you to elevate your dining experience, whether enjoying a homely one-pot supper dish with your family or hosting a formal dinner party. Picture-perfect tablescapes bring together all the elements of the dining table – the linens, flatware, dishes, glasses and décor, in perfect harmony. Their inviting ambience gets the conversation flowing and allows your family and guests to relax as they share your feast.
Tablescapes are the creative host's dream. They allow you to express your personality and conjure a specific atmosphere. They also serve as a charming extension of your home's interior design. From minimalist to lavish, there's scope to stage your dining scene just as you'd like, and you'll find everything you need to finesse your chosen look at CB2.
Whether you savour the opportunity to set your tablescape or need a little helping hand, we've collated the key points to consider when dressing your dinner table.
Asking the right questions
Before you plan your tablescape, you need to answer a few questions:
How many guests will I host?
Knowing how many places you need to set allows you to plan how to fill the space between your settings. If you have many place settings at a dinner party, be careful not to overcrowd your 'free' spaces. Meanwhile, when hosting smaller numbers, take care to ensure your table still feels abundant and lively, avoiding empty voids.
Indoors or al fresco?
Though there are no hard and fast rules, you tend to set an indoor dining table a little more formally or opulently, while an al fresco table can come alive with informal whimsy and ambient magic.
What will I serve?
This will dictate whether you need to choose and create space for serving dishes and platters.
Once you've answered these practical questions, you can move on to the creative part!
Finding your inspiration
Having a theme for your tablescape will give you that all-important design focus. A theme helps you choose an overall aesthetic and a colour scheme, which in turn will allow you to mindfully select all the different elements that build your tablescape.
Your theme could be based on the season when you'll host the dinner party. In the spring and summer, you might set fresh and airy tablescapes, delicate with wildflowers and clean white linens and dishes, while autumn and winter tablescapes could glow with candles, reflective ornamentation and accents of gold, red and copper.
You may wish to theme your tablescape around an upcoming festivity or a celebration such as a birthday, anniversary or baby shower.
Laying your foundation
Think of your kitchen linens as the canvas you'll decorate to create your tablescape. You may prefer the blank canvas of a spotless white tablecloth to allow the next layers of your tablescape to pop. White linens are perfect for both minimalist styles and tablescapes that celebrate colours, such as pastel themes for baby showers and vibrant colours for a child's birthday party.
If you’d like the linen to form a focal point in your tablescape, find a runner that can guide the eye up the table, showcasing your aesthetic with its colour or design. Be subtle with this tablescape storytelling, choosing linens with accents of your tonal scheme or theme – avoiding cliched prints and blocks of your chosen colours.
Though your linens form the base of your scheme, you can already start your layering here, not only with runners atop a tablecloth but with fabric placemats and napkins. Layering these material elements works particularly well when you're trying to soften a look.
Serving the look
With your linens smoothly set across the dining table, it's time to add the vital elements of the entertaining experience – the dishes, flatware and glasses. The seasoned tablescaper understands that although table décor brings the theme to life, you need the base elements of your dinnerware and flatware to coordinate with the look to offer perfect cohesion.
A white dinner service with polished silver cutlery and clear glasses lends itself to formal, glamorous tablescapes, but as our dinner range demonstrates, the contemporary home has an abundance of options when it comes to colours, prints, glazes and shapes within dinnerware sets. Achieve the desirable modern look (and allow your lovingly made meal to stand out) with black and earthy-toned plates and bowls. If your scheme calls for warmth, glow or sparkle, opt for dinnerware edged with gilding, and when selecting your flatware, call upon sets in warmer metallic hues such as gold and champagne. Choose colourful printed dinnerware sets and smoky or coloured glasses to breathe a sense of fun into your tablescape, being careful not to make your ornamentation too busy.
If serving dishes and platters are placed on the table, choose clean, white dishes if you'd like the food to be the show's star. Add your dishes to wooden charcuterie boards or rustic reactive glaze bowls with caramel and terracotta tones to add a homely, comforting vibe to the table.
The finishing touches
Don't feel overwhelmed by those looming spaces between place settings. You must choose your centrepiece and decorative pieces with intention, not with space-filling panic!
Once you've added your decanters and carafes to the table, you'll know where to add height to the tablescape. A centrepiece can achieve this elevation effortlessly with either a classic floral display or a striking modern ornament whose silhouette and colouration speak of your theme.
Add seasonal touches with casual spring and summer fresh flower posies, sprigs of evergreens and even artificial garlands. Across all seasons, candles are a winning addition and can even serve as your centrepiece.
Step back to admire your tablescape, and don't be afraid to move items around until there is a natural flow. Take your hosting skills to the top tier with a stunning tablescape that is a joy to curate and will impress your guests.