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Accentuate your dining table with layered table linens and elevate your dining experience
by Thomas Wenger
During the festive season and for that matter for any occasion to be celebrated, preparing the food is a major part of the event and needs to be planed for carefully.
But of equal importance to the food being served, is the ambiance that is created with the decoration and settings of the place where the occasion is to be held.
At the center of the room, the dining table mostly stands out as the biggest and most elaborately decorated furnishing and greatly adds to the entire experience.
Accentuating one’s dining table, adding a great center piece, the correct table setting, spotless chinaware and cutlery, and sparkling glasses together with accessories, the candles, the nametags and the neatly folded napkins really sets the right mood for the entire dinner that is to be served.
A great looking dinner table automatically demands attention from all your guests.
In this scenario the right table cloth, the correct color scheme and the balance between differently fabrics and overlays, can bring a different feel to the table and turn an ordinary, nicely decorated dining table to an extraordinary table fit for any celebration.
Remembering my grandmother’s table on any special occasions, there used to be an immaculate, starched white tablecloth on the table and over it a hand made, laced table runner to accentuate the table centerpiece.
For a long time it seemed to me, that this was really an old fashion, country style and really a thing of the past. Tables, also in restaurants, became “spartanical” clean and bare, elaborate decorations abundant and tablecloths something one would only find in “fine dining rooms”.
But recently, I feel, that the tablecloth and especially layered tablecloths and table runners that give character to the dining table have made a comeback. Table runners of native materials, placemats in complementing colors, silk and lace overlays to bring out the best in our china ware and plate chargers and multiple layers of table cloths. Various different fabrics and materials are being placed on top of each other all in harmony and to make the tablecloth and the dining table for our dinner parties once again the “piece de resistance” it actually deserves to be.
A few “Do’s and Don’ts”:
- Choose the right size tablecloth for your table. In general the tablecloth should not touch the floor, but needs to be long enough to hide the legs of the table.
- Lightly starch your table linen. Nothing spells “class” better than a crisp, clean tablecloth. And that is not achieved any other way.
- When using multiple layers of tablecloth, ensure that the each layer is uniformly layered onto each other, meaning that the distance from one tablecloth to the other is the same.
- Don’t use heavy colored and/or rough and coarse fabrics underneath lighter, or laced cloths.
- When using table runners, ensure that they are not overlapping the place settings, placemats or plate chargers. The same goes for the correct size placemats. As a general guideline, table runners should be about 30 cm or 1 foot wide.
- When using place mats, ensure that they are large enough to hold all the cutleries as well.
- If lace or silk is used on top of cotton or linen garment, it is important that the lace or silk in kept in place securely. This is often achieved by securing it with pins or safety pins from underneath.
- Work with color tones and shades, rather than different prime colors. Too many colors will make your table look like patchwork once the plates, glasses and cutlery is added.
- Using a felt or thick cloth underlay underneath the tablecloth helps in softening the table. However, if the felt is too think there is a danger of glasses and vases having less of a solid stand and are easily tipped over.
- Iron your tablecloth after placing it on the table. A perfectly creased tablecloth is acceptable, but small wrinkles or soft and unsharp creases have to be ironed out.
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