Set a fresh, festive table
Mix personal touches with unexpected hints of nature to delight guests
Afestive table can bring the sizzle to a party, spark conversations among guests and give you an excuse to pull out your grandmother’s silver and china.
Interior designers, florists and event planners offer their advice:
Start with linens. “The foundation of your holiday table is the textile you choose for your runner, or tablecloth and napkins,” says Liz Curtis, founder of Table + Teaspoon, a San Francisco rental service.
Go with a neutral colour and pattern to create “an elegant, elevated feel for your guests,” she says.
“I like to make my own runners out of beautiful fabric that I have turned into the length of my dining table by my local dry cleaner’s alterations department,” she says, noting that “a black-and-white patterned linen works as a base for anything you want to put on top of it.”
Make it personal. “The holidays are a time to celebrate family, so the most meaningful decorations weave together the personal and the festive,” Bronson van Wyck said. He and his mother, Mary Lynn, own design and event production company Van Wyck & Van Wyck.
Bronson, who is of Scottish and Dutch descent, uses tartanpatterned napkins and blue- and-white china. “Even patterns that don’t seem to fit the occasion work if they’re mixed and matched with confidence and whimsy.” To add another personal touch, he says: “I will sometimes embroider the initials of my guests onto napkins, which I then use as place cards” that guests can take home.
Incorporate nature. “Pomegranates and figs add the perfect punch of holiday red to a place setting, and nothing smells more beautiful than sprigs of evergreen scattered throughout the house,” says Maggie Burns, of Maggie Richmond Design in Manhattan.
Robin Standefer, who owns the design firm Roman and Williams with her husband, Stephen Alesch, suggests decorating with plants, flowers, fruit and herbs.
“We take what’s around us — a branch, an apple, an herb — and make it into our tablescape,” she says of an approach that can be seen at the couple’s showroom-and-restaurannt hybrid, Roman and Williams Guild, in SoHo. “No, it’s not going to be cookie-cutter perfect … That’s what brings lasting beauty and charm to your home.” Break some rules. A table “should be loosely arranged for balance, but not perfectly symmetrical,” San Francisco event designer Ken Fulk says.
Glassware and silver should be arranged in the order they’re used, starting from the outside and working your way in, he says. “But we give ourselves some flexibility with glasses when there are more than five pairings. In those cases, we’re often mixing vintage glassware with crystal, and it looks so much prettier to arrange by style, size or colour.” Invest in stemware. “Nothing speaks louder in a setting of celebration than the clinking of water or wine glasses,” Standefer says.
“A robust glassware collection can be high and low — glass you admire that you’ve found at a flea market or a set you invest in from the collection of an expert artisan whose work you follow,” she says. Avoid clichés. Liz Curtis, in San Francisco, says she’ll occasionally slice the bottom off a pear and stand it in the centre of a plate as decoration. Or cut a persimmon or pomegranate in half, with the sliced side up. “Every time I’ve put an orange or a pear or a quince on a plate, at least one guest ends up eating it,” she says.
Jung Lee, a founder of the event design company Fête NY, likes to incorporate tiny figurines. “Little vignettes or collections will spark conversation, especially when elements are not as literal,” says Lee, who added miniature owls to a holiday table she recently created. Light the candles. “The easiest, least expensive way to add drama to the dinner table is to light some candles,” Bronson van Wyck says. “For the most flattering light, aim for a mix of tapers and votives scattered the length of the table.”
And don’t skimp. “For a warm, inviting glow, at least triple what you think you’ll need.”