Grab grandma’s goodies out of the fine-china cabinet
Colours, patterns and textures the latest trend in tableware
There’s good news for your Grandma’s outdated china: It no longer has to live a life behind cupboard doors while modern dishes get all the glory.
The latest trend in tableware is mixing and matching colours, patterns and textures, which means there’s now a spot at the dinner table for those vintage pieces you’ve kept tucked away all these years.
Dansk Gifts owner Stasia Nawrocki, of Edmonton, is a tableware expert.
She sees the bright colours of current spring and summer fashions combining with bold patterns and classic silhouettes.
The same trend has been reflected in tableware, which, when co-ordinated correctly, can add personality and flair to your home.
“I always maintain that what you see in clothing, you see in tableware,” Nawrocki says.
“There is a strong trend of mixing patterns, textures, layers and as a reflection of it, you see the same thing in dinnerware. Not only mixing different patterns and colours together, but also mixing new and old, like vintage and modern, which can make for striking composition and setting.”
Nawrocki says that pairing unique cutlery and dishes with bright pops of colour adds to the esthetic.
Orange and turquoise, for example, is a combination that is currently becoming quite popular.
When it comes to designing your tabletop masterpiece, Nawrocki suggests starting with one item and working everything else around it.
For example, you could start with floral tea cups and saucers, or old dishes with scalloped edges.
You can then go about finding a common thread between those pieces and more modern tableware.
If there’s a colourful floral pattern in your vintage tea cups, you can pick it up in bright placemats, runners or napkins.
Basics, like plates, can be kept neutral. Or, if you prefer, you can get them in a correlating shade.
“If you had a very special vintage salad plate, I would very carefully look at it. Is it glass? Is it porcelain? What colours does it have in it?” Nawrocki says.
“If this is the item that is most important, I would try to find other things that would make it more special and work together.”
For Gloria Lockie, sales associate for Call The Kettle Black, her starting point is a theme.
Once you determine whether you’re going Easter, ritzy or casual, you can follow up by purchasing your same style of tablecloth, runner or napkins.
At Call The Kettle Black, their Fiestaware dishes come in a variety of colours, such as paprika, ivory, plum and lemon grass green. If you have old china featuring some of those colours, Lockie says they would go well together.
“What they’re saying now is bring out (your old china) and use it. But use it and mix it with your new modern stuff and solid colours,” says Lockie. “And bone china is tougher and harder and wears better, so you can really use it a lot. Ironstone (tableware) chips easily.”
If you’re eager to play with different patterns, you can still achieve a cohesive look by using similarly shaped dishes or a more consistent hue throughout. As long as there is something in common, the kitchen table can become your canvas.
Some people with open-concept homes might be hesitant to mix and match tableware, especially if the rest of the house is very modern.
For Lockie, having a contemporary home shouldn’t stop you from experimenting with old and new.
“Grandmothers and granddaughters get along. So do grandfathers and grandsons. So come on! Do it with your decor,” Lockie laughs.
Nawrocki recommends working a little bit of vintage elsewhere in the home to ensure the style flows throughout.
“Home is about who you are, where you came from and what’s important to you,” Nawrocki says. “To me, modern is important, but so is past history, and it can all work together with the colours, shapes and textures.”