How in the world do I...

[ljmorgan]

dress and set a table?

I recently moved in with my fiance, and I have always loved decorating. We have a great townhouse, and nice furniture, and I''m working on making it feel "homey." One thing stumps me -- I have no idea how to dress our dining room table. You can see a picture of it here

http://www.ikea.com/PIAimages/56311_XXXXXXXX_S6.jpg

Incidentally, I AM in the processing of putting up black and white photos on the wall next to the table as shown in the picture, only I''m not using 500 like they do.

Our dining area is attached to our living room, and our furniture can be described as neutral/contemporary, modern and upscale, but with a lot a feminine touches. The dining room table is strong on it''s own and I don''t want to cover it with a table cloth, but are place mats lame? Are there times when table cloths are absolutely called for?

So my question is -- how should I dress up my table? What have you done to yours? Thanks in advance!

 

[msdarlinjoy]

Hi Lindsey~

I think since your dining room is attached to the living room, and you would like it to remain causual, it is perfectly ok to just pust a vase of flowers, or a beautiful floral arrangement on the table, au natural when not in use.

I did see in one of my magazines ... I can''t remember now which one it was, I will try to find it, but they did a spread on a black & white dining room, and it was totaly gorgeous! When they had company over they easily converted it to feel more dressy with a beautiful white linen table cloth, and softened up the black with other creamy accents ... It really was gorgeous.

Have a wonderful day!

 

[njc]

Our dinning room and living room are all one big open space too and we have a similar table to yours. I tend to keep the table simple… sometimes I have a runner going down the middle length-wise, others just a placemat or two stacked in the middle. I try to keep something on the larger side in the middle (or at least in scale with the table)… a bowl of fruit, vase/flowers, decorative glass pitcher. I used to keep our silver candle sticks on either side of whatever was in the middle, but have gotten away from the recently. During Christmas last year I filled a nice bowl with different colors of cracked glass ornaments.

HTH!

PS – I also play with the number of chairs I keep around the table. We have six that can fit around, but sometimes I just do four… really simplifies the look!

 

[ljmorgan]

Thank you both for your suggestions. I like the idea about just one simple thing in the middle, and I also like the idea of possibly adding a runner. And it might be a good idea to keep a white table cloth handy for ultra nice dinners. Thank you!

 

[ephemery1]

We have a simple dark wood table, and I love the look of a long table-runner down the middle with this type of centerpiece:
(Actually, I'm registering for that on Crate & Barrel

... but the look with the candles and stones can be recreated with any type bowl!)

 

[moremoremore]

I would just get a huge and shallow glass urn...fill it to into a huge pile with lemons and limes!!!