As the holidays near I like to get a head start on decor ideas for upcoming parties and dinners. Here I've rounded up 5 tips and tricks for getting your table setting just right while adding a little pizazz and style.
1. Place Setting Etiquette: the perfect map for the traditional place setting, from The Tasty Design.
2. Polish Your Silverware, Naturally: these DIY tutorials from The Daily Green will help you clean your silver and copper ware with ketchup, toothpaste and baking soda.
3. DIY Tablecloths: try using cheesecloth, an ombre dyed tablecloth or sewn scalloped oilcloth.
4. Add a Pop of Color: try adding neon napkins or a table runner, rusty oranges for fall, or any color complimenting your dining area.
5. Floral Arrangements and Natural Materials: consider accenting your tableware with succulents, pebbles and rocks, single flowers in vases, or pumpkins and gourds.
(Images: 1. Julie Renee Phelan via The Tasty Design 2. Mel Curtis via The Daily Green 3. Sunday Suppers 4. Design Sponge 5. Style Me Pretty)
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great tips alexa!
I like the ombre tablecloth (though it's very trendy, so it'll immediately look aged next year...)
That said, for the first image - I've always been a fan of restaurants that limit cutlery to 2-3 on either side of the plate, and bring additional if needed. Something about images with Every Single Piece of Possible Dinnerware(tm) shown kind of makes me want to run screaming - there's a level of (something I perceive as) pretension there that makes me deeply uncomfortable.
Will you PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE stop posting those harmful silver-polishing "tips"? Toothpaste is way too abrasive for any silver you care about, and the aluminum-foil-and-baking-soda method will leave your silver looking flat and dull.
I have to agree with Polly S. The best way to care for your silver (the good stuff anyway) is to prevent it from tarnishing at all. You can buy silver tarnish papers you store with your real silver which will absorb the chemical reaction that causes tarnish. Some silver storage boxes even have the stuff built-in. The museum I used to work at had a silver vault and all the shelves were lined with this paper to prevent their gorgeous 18th century silver collection from tarnishing.
Go to Winterthur sometime and see if you can find the silver with the holes in it - holes from over-polishing the collections in the 19th century.
That being said, I kind of like the dark and creepy look of tarnished silverware. Especially if it's from the thrift store. So I would forgo polishing all but the eating portions (tarnish is unlikely to be good for you to ingest) and let the tarnish play a starring role.
But yeah, if your silver is already tarnish-free, silver tarnish papers are the way to go.
What is labelled as a Soup Spoon is a Dessert Spoon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soup_spoon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dessert_spoon
At the top of the plate there should be a Dessert Spoon and Dessert Fork, not a Coffee/Tea Spoon.
I noticed a few things wrong with the first picture(or maybe I learned it all wrong) but I guessing it's a picture from someone's person dinner party so it doesn't really matter.
But since when is the salad course the last couse?
I can't help myself either. I notice many problems with that table. Man am I a geek.
I dislike the custom of putting coffee cup and dessert forks on the table. It is much nicer to clear the entire table first and than transition to dessert or cheese.
Salad is eaten after the entree throughout Europe and many "Continental" Americans do the same. Easier to digest.
If you want to keep silver clean use it or store it with silver paper or fabric. The methods in that DIY will take off the silver.
@judiAU
I had never heard of that, any dinner I have ever cooked for(and I have done a bunch of 3 course or more dinners) the salad has been either first or after the appetizers or consume/soup course. I've even done some European dinners too!
Thanks for the info!