Dreamy Tablescapes
If you’ve found yourself in a #dinnertable Instagram rabbit hole at 2am, you’re not alone. Whether minimalist or maximalist, we love inspiration and a good table design to set the mood. And that means setting a table that reflects who we are, or at least who we are in this moment. What better playground to experiment than here?
Cool, polished and sophisticated, the Traditionalist table enjoys everything in its time-honored place. Setting the French flatware just so brings to mind our grandmother who taught us there is art in the inches between soup spoon and entree fork. Matching linen napkins become a thrilling challenge. Let’s see what shape we can create.
We serve dressed butter lettuces in smooth Maplewood salad bowls; its subtle beauty and functionality allows the food to shine. Wine is served by the course in borosilicate Italian calices and water refreshed in partnered acqua glasses. They aren’t lost on the Traditionalist tabletop, which may use woven place mats or a monochrome table runner to tie it all together. Whether carrying wisdom from generations or creating our own rituals, tradition lives here.
At the Naturalist table, fresh greenery gathered from an afternoon walk in the woods invites friends to explore newly foraged joys while talking around the table. Leaves and flowers, mushrooms and wild herbs are thoughtfully gathered into centerpieces, a fern frond adorns each plate.
Vino glasses and calices, made by Italian artists, aren’t lost on the tablecloth pattern or busy decor, thanks to their warm hues. A walnut nesting bowl, finished with all-natural bee’s oil, and sustainably sourced horn salad servers, hold our favorite side dish. Over a fresh supper of nettle and spring pea pasta, radishes with butter, and warm homemade bread, we laugh and talk while holding French bistrot flatware in earth tones, our faces lit by candles shaped like freshly picked fruit. A midsummer night’s dream come true.
The Minimalist table may nonchalantly say, “Nothing fancy,” but makes every essential piece memorable and multifunctional. Italian acqua glasses for cocktails, wine, and water. Rinse and repeat. Streamlined quality flatware, purchased in a full set we’ll keep for a decade. The fewer dishes to wash at the end of the night the better, because our guests are ready to move outside for nightcaps and stargazing.
The Minimalist chooses pieces that showcase the ingredients we love to work with. Our favorite oil and vinegar bottles, crafted by artists in Milan, echo simple stone farmhouses in the olive orchards of Puglia, the autonomy of the functional. We serve foods whose flavor is coaxed out through expert preparation, passing dishes back and forth over midcentury marble or Scandinavian walnut. Simplicity at its finest.
