Top Tips For Decorating Your Dinner Party Table
It’s always fun to lavish some attention to your dining table when you’ve got special guests arriving. It’s all about having fun, creating something with impact and above all, orchestrating an environment that people feel relaxed in and want to linger for as long as possible. We’ve put ogether some of our top tips for dressing up your table ready for a fabulous night of entertaining.
Candles & Candelabras
Candles are a great way of instantly creating a relaxed mood and an inviting atmosphere. If you can add to this by finding some candelabras to display your candles on, your table will be elevated to another level. They are wonderful for adding a touch of romance and drama to your table and the height that they create, sitting proudly above the glasses, will give a wonderful balance to your overall display.
Fabric Napkins
We’ve found some beautiful vintage fabric napkins from charity shops and antiques fairs, so they don’t have to cost the earth. They soften the overall look of your table scheme and the tactile nature of fabric feels a little more luxurious than a humble paper towel! You don’t necessarily need a napkin ring, just a neatly ironed peace of fabric, laid flat next to the plate, with your cutlery overlaid can look beautiful enough.
Side Plates
There’s something stunning about a ‘fully dressed’ table and introducing some simple side plates is a fundamental part of this. They obviously have a use, particularly if you’re providing some bread or a communal starter, but they can also be a great way to add colour or interest to your table display. They don’t have to be perfectly matching, you can build up a random selection of plates you find interesting and even match the style to the person you’re allocating the seat to.
Glasses
Even if you’re planning to provide drinks for your guests prior to the meal beginning, adding a wine glass and water tumbler to every place setting will elevate your dining table to another level. Polish up the glass with a fuzz free towel before aligning to the right hand side and it will make your entire table scheme shine!
A Carafe of Wine & Water
Providing a carafe of wine and water in the centre of the table looks beautiful, adds another layer of height and will also save you precious time running back and forth to the kitchen for top-ups. Most restaurants have cottoned on to the fact that you can even make tap water look appealing if it’s presented in the right bottle, so finding a few vessels you’re proud for guests to pick up and use throughout the meal is a must.
Sharing Food
If you’re hosting for a group of people that don’t know each other particularly well, sharing food placed around the table, like a basket of bread or a board of Parma ham, cheese and figs, is a great way to help people break the ice. It looks beautiful on the table, it saves you time preparing a cooked starter and passing the food around will naturally get your guests interacting.
Dressing with Fruit & Foliage
If space allows, another great trick for adding colour, texture and interest to the table is to include a display of fruits and berries. This might need to be removed by the time your main course arrives, but the initial visual impact can really work wonders for your overall display. Just a small selection of pomegranates, figs, red grapes or cherries (for example) alongside some flowers and foliage is a low cost, natural way to decorate your table.
Serving In Style
Having a few special presentation plates, boards or trays for your food can add the ‘cherry on the cake’ of your table display. Food can be informal while still having the ‘wow factor’ if you’ve got some decent dishes to serve it up on. Keep your eyes peeled in charity shops and flea markets for something a little unusual, it might just become a bit of a conversation starter!
Above all you want your guests to be comfy and relaxed in the seats your providing. You also want them to eat from a table that doesn’t move with the knife as they cut through their steak. Finding a solid, sturdy table that allows your guests to dine safe in the knowledge that their dinner won’t be landing in their lap any time soon, is a must. If you’ve opted for wooden seats as opposed to a fabric chair, seat pads are a great way of adding a bit of softness and encouraging your guests to linger for longer!
If your dining set has seen better days and a night of entertainment is looming, finding a replacement might not be as expensive as you think. Take a look at our Dining Set collection and you can make some great savings by grouping your table and chairs together.
