The story of this table setting post starts with these beauties.

Aren’t they simply gorgeous? A dear friend gifted us this lovely dinner set recently, and I had the perfect occasion to put it to use when my uncle and aunt came over for lunch on Saturday.

It was that lazy, happy kind of weekend, when you’re not just ticking things off on your checklist. The kind of day when ‘lay the table’ is not a task you have to complete in 3 minutes. It became my creative, leisure activity of the morning and I had great fun with the table setting!

A Glam & Glittering Table Setting:

I started out with a clean slate… or shall we call it a blank canvas. After all, we’re creating a piece of art here, aren’t we?

I dug out all the table mats and runners I could find, and chose these for the afternoon.

I laid out the runners on 2 opposite ends, and table mats the other 2 sides. Those cutwork mats are so pretty, but I have only 3. (I had picked up the last 3 pieces available, a long time back) So I mixed them up with the beady, glittery mats and laid them out in the centre.

Then came all the tableware.

We needed more glam here, so I added these gold wire napkin rings to the napkins.

This napkin fan is really easy to do. You just fold it, like in a paper fan, and slide the ring in. (You can see how to do it step by step in the video below)

I laid these out too, and the table looked almost complete.

I toyed with the idea of putting the quarter plates on the dinner plates, to make the table look neater and less crowded.

But I thought hiding those gorgeous red dinner plates was a bad idea. The table looked fuller and brighter with the plates side by side, and I stuck to that.

Dressing it Up:

Now we needed something to go on the large, centre mat. Fresh flowers are always great!

I had this big bunch of roses lying at home. But it was far too big. If you put something that large at the centre of your table, you can’t see across it to look at the person sitting opposite. So I had to break it up into smaller arrangements.

The flower vases I have at home, like the one in the centre, are all quite big. They wouldn’t solve the problem of not being able to look across the arrangement. So I picked up some empty glass bottles I found in the kitchen. The one on the left once upon a time, contained olives, while the one on the right was a bottle of salsa !

I put flowers in both these to make smaller arrangements.

2 usually looks incomplete, so I added a small succulent to this pair, and placed the 3 in the centre.

You can see the light shining off those small beads and my glittery, glam table setting was done!

We had a great lunch, and somehow, sitting at a table like that makes the occasion feel that much more special and the food taste a little bit better. (Or maybe it’s just the Piscean in me who thinks that the ambience contributes to at least half of any experience!)

Watch this video to see the setting of this table in steps and… well… because it’s fun!

But this is only part 1 of the story… so keep scrolling down after the video for yet another table setting…

A Simple & Pretty Table Setting:

The next day was a lazy Sunday with the 4 of us lounging around at home doing pretty much nothing. I got to the dining table for lunch and saw this…

Yes, it’s neat and simple and that’s everything we need. But what a contrast to the day before! And whatever happened to ambience? I decided to prettify this too, without doing anything too fancy. What if a bunch of my kids’ friends were coming over for lunch and I didn’t want to risk my best dinnerware? Or some friends dropped in suddenly and I didn’t have time to redo the whole setting? This would be a quick-fix table setting.

I took out a bunch of paper tissues (no fancy table linen here) and kept the same plastic handle cutlery we generally use.

I kept the Corelle plates which were already laid out. They’re simple and pretty much unbreakable so that’s what we use on a daily basis. I also added quarter plates to the setting. They always make it look a little more formal and dressed up. I put the fork and spoon on the tissue simply so that it doesn’t fly off!

The table looked better already, but those 2 mats in the centre had to go. I joined another pair to make a little runner in the middle instead.

There were no flowers available… so I placed 3 matching potted plants on the runner.

Those gaps in between… I don’t have holders for long candles, (will remember to put that on my to get list!) but I like how long candles look on dining tables. So I picked up this pair of pretty wine glasses and stuck the candles into them.

That’s it! My table setting was done!

The table went from being normal and boring to green and happy in 10 minutes!

And to share a little secret… I actually thought the plants looked better than the flowers the previous day!

So the next time I’m jazzing up my table even with my best dinnerware, I think I’ll go with greens on the table!

And the next time you’re laying the table… have fun dressing it up. Trust me, the food tastes better!

I hope you enjoy this video too… And share any quick-fix table dressing tips you have… I’m always looking for more!

Until next time,