SPRING TABLE DESIGNS

Learn how to set a fresh spring dining table for the season.

Learn how to set your dining table fresh for the season.

“Hospitality is one of mankind’s oldest and most sacred rites,” writes Frances Schultz in her new book, Cooking and Southern Style:100 Great Recipes, Inspired Menus, and Gorgeous Table Settings. Living in California but hailing from the woods of eastern North Carolina, Schultz paints a portrait of how good old Southern hospitality translates to other areas of the country, such as the hills and vineyards of the American Southwest. That cultural mash-up has influenced her elaborate, beautiful tablescapes.

INTENTIONALITY

Anyone can set a table, but it takes an eye for design to create a tablescape. That doesn’t mean you need training or a fancy degree to do it—just give a little thought to the overall design of the table. Pick a color scheme or theme based on an inspiration, such as spring. For example, Schultz’s “Ladies’ Lunch” table has spring as its inspiration. Spring calls to mind new growth and fresh vegetables, and Schultz recommends that you combine settings that might seem a little old-fashioned—think linens, silver and antiques—with bright pink or white flowers like peonies, tulips and roses. When it comes to the meals themselves, serve food that’s in season, and check out your local farmers’ market for ingredients for spring-like recipes you might like to try.

SIMPLICITY

While you’re setting your spring table, remember that your elements don’t have to be perfect. If your place settings don’t quite match or you can’t find the exact shade of flowers you want, use those sticking points as opportunities for creativity. After all, the end goal with setting tables or organizing large meals can be done on any budget: It’s to encourage people to gather. As Schultz explains, “The point is not the food or the flowers or the showing off. The point is bringing people together, be it with pizza on paper plates or caviar on porcelain.”

"Hospitality

is one of mankind’s oldest and most sacred rites.”

For large banquet settings like this one, symmetry and repetition are a must. The chairs, centerpiece and identical flowers at each setting make the whole table come together with cohesion.

Schultz uses her home in the Santa Ynez Valley of California—a modern estate known as Rancho La Zaca—as the main location for her dinners and tablescapes.