Dining style Imagine…….
…..you’ve got all dressed up for dinner, a chef of great renown has just been snapped up by this new restaurant you’re going to but when your arrive you find the décor, well….. absent; flatly lit and just plain old dullsville. The service, cuisine and wine list may be excellent but where’s the ambience? Consideration of this vital part of the communal eating experience is just as important at home as anywhere else. Whether we have a separate dining room, or a nominated space inside or outside, treating a meal as a little piece of theatre is enriching for all concerned.
Lead by the nose To get this right, it’s important to choose a theme and where better than to be led by your intended cuisine. Mexican or Italian suggests piquancy and warmth - warm sunny shades of buttery yellow and zesty orange. Chinese or Spanish evokes high sheen and high contrast…… dramatic reds accented against glossy blacks. Japanese or Scandinavian is all understated minimalism; blacks again perhaps but with muted greys or pebble blues.
Know your limits Naturally, you’ll have to work in the context of your existing interior scheme, but don’t feel too constrained by this. Coherence can emerge just as well from contrast as it does from similarity. In a pale and austere dining area, a high octane tablescape alive with warm colours will create enlivening impact. Team it with a table sparsely laid in restrained colours, it will still produce drama as long as there is sufficient contrast with textures and accent colour.
Theatrical echoes So, in your mind’s eye, it’s all there. You know your menu and your
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By Jackie Sears Jackie Sears is an interior designer who believes that interior spaces have to not only look great, but should work easily and efficiently for the people using them.
colour palette. The next step is to bring it all to fruition without buying everything new. An audit of all your tableware is needed at this point. Set aside those items that are either neutral or match the main and accent colours of your scheme. Are there any cupboards hiding long-forgotten vases/ planters/ ornaments that you could rescue from oblivion in light of this new horizon? To enhance that sense of theatre, the area beyond the eating space should echo the tablescape and this can be done quite lightly by placing within your guests’ eyeline any objects that share the theme.
Layering up
A great way to add texture to a tablescape is to layer the elements in either contrasting or analogous colour. For an analogous colour example which starts with a grey tablecloth, add a silvery textured mat, a white textured plate, topped off with a pair of napkins dressed with a beaded clasp in graphite grey. The more courses you have, the more these could be added to. Using a coloured charger is another and quite inexpensive way of adding impact to a place-setting of plain crockery, as is layering coloured glassware on coasters.
Twinkle twinkle
Sparkle is the key to a mouth- watering tablescape and is crafted from careful choice of glassware, cutlery and lighting. Ideally, the main lighting in the room will be subdued,
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allowing the table to provide the lighting interest. Pretty votive candles meandering around the dishes, or more formally, symmetrically aligned, are a good way to highlight textural interest at plate-level. String lights can enhance this effect, either on the tabletop or threaded around its edge. To make the most of the facets in the glassware though, a higher light source is needed in the form of a candle-stick or candelabra. For smaller tables, you can reduce their visual “weight” by choosing a clear material such as Lucite or glass. Do get the height right though - either well above people’s heads or lower than chin-height, to prevent your guests from feeling hemmed in and hampering the flow of conversation.
More sparkle
The more courses you serve, the more cutlery and glassware you can lay out and the more the candlelight will dance around. Any metal with some texture in it, like this charming set from Distinctly Living’s Twist range will enhance that tendency, as will cut-glass of course. Although it’s not particularly fashionable just now, there’s no reason why one of the smaller pieces of your set of glasses can’t be in that style to add some extra sparkle to your own night of theatre.
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