Discover our essential Summer tablescape styling tips to transform your dining space this season.
The dining room has universally been a place of commune, connection, and celebration for centuries.
The Greeks were the first to design rooms specifically designed for eating, followed by the Ancient Romans.
By the Victorian era, affluent households spent lavishly on their dining rooms, outfitting them with upholstered chairs, mahogany sideboards, beautiful bone china, and expensive linen napery to entertain and host guests for special occasions.
However, the rise of the dining space as a place to cultivate a sense of family through designated daily family mealtimes and casual gatherings depended upon the arrival of the dining table & dining room from Europe to America in the mid-19th century.
Today, many homes are returning to a more open-plan, communal-style dining space that functions as a breakfast nook, dining table, workspace, and games table. The dining table is the one place within the home that is transient in its style and functionality, as the tablescape mirrors the change in seasons, holidays and celebrations, bringing a sense of vibrancy and aliveness to the home.
Summer Tablescape Styling Tips: Hamptons Style
A Hamptons-style tablescape combines streamlined luxury with a lived-in coastal charm.
The interplay of blue and white ceramics, hand-block prints, crisp white linen, rattan & pewter can be complemented by crystal-stem glassware and vases for a more formal feel, whereas corals, shells & a natural timber base creates a more relaxed look.
Create the Hamptons Tablescape
Colour Scheme: Lots of white, with table bases of painted white, natural or dark timbers, and accents of indigo, celadon greens, navy and duck egg blues.
The Base:
Formal: A white pressed linen or cotton tablecloth.
Casual: A blue & white hand-blocked cotton tablecloth or table runner layered on a natural, white painted or black stained timber table.
Napery:
If your base is a white tablecloth, layer with antique rattan placemats or underplates larger than the plates you will use to create balance and depth. If using a runner in the centre of the table, placemats are still a good way to add colour, in rattan, seagrass, or linen/cotton in plain white, navy, or hand-blocked print or stripe.
We recommend finishing the look with crisp white linen napkins to compliment the tablecloth or blue & white printed napkins for a more casual look. Napkin rings in silver or pewter (formal) or rattan/seagrass or even shell add another element.
Centrepiece:
Formal:
Silver nickel or glass candleholders in different heights ( pictured above) with a collection of crystal vases displaying floral arrangements of hydrangeas, white roses, freesias, and gardenias with green foliage.
Casual:
If it is a family-style meal with large platters, style one central glass/nickel or rattan candleholder and 2 small floral arrangements in white ceramic, pewter, silver, or rattan jugs or vases. Allow plenty of white space for the share platters to sit.
Glassware:
Crystal glassware in varying sizes, such as the Elysee striped tumblers, wine, and champagne glasses pictured.
For a more casual look, add a blue glass tumbler for added colour.
Place-settings & Servingware:
Layer blue & white china on classic white ceramics with simple detailing. Pewter serving ware, glass or silver water jugs, oil & vinegar sets, glass butter dishes, and white ceramic or silver salt dishes.
Flatware & Servers: Classic silver (formal) or white resin, bone, marble, or rattan-handled cutlery for a more casual look.
Table Lighting:
Elegant pillar candles styled in nickel, pewter, rattan, or glass candleholders.
Decor:
For the festive season, tie a name tag to a pretty silver Christmas ornament for each place setting, and don’t forget some beautiful bonbons.
Summer Tablescape Styling Tips: Relaxed Country
A Relaxed Country tablescape is organic, textural, relaxed, and un-fussy. Fresh, unstructured floral arrangements styled in white ceramic vases or glazed jugs, hand-crafted ceramic platters softened by natural linens. Adding in rustic materials such as zinc, wire, and metal adds a country charm, especially when complemented by recycled time-worn furniture.
Create the Relaxed Country Look
Colour Scheme:
Chalky oyster whites, pastel greens, caramels, taupes, faded blues, and muted reds.
The Base:
Bleached elm or scrubbed pine recycled timber tables with painted/natural timber rush seated dining chairs. For farmhouse tables, long benches topped with grain sacks or stonewashed linen cushions are a good option for large, informal gatherings. Repurposed woven grain sack stripe fabrics utilised as table runners or stonewashed linen placemats in natural or muted colourways to soften the rustic backdrop.
Napery:
Confiture towels with muted red stripes add farmhouse chic, as do natural linen or provincial-printed cotton napkins and placemats.
Centrepiece:
Unstructured fresh floral arrangements from the garden, hand-crafted ceramic water jugs or vases, large share platters, wooden cheese boards, wire and glass candleholders, or even zinc/metal vessels.
Glassware:
Handblown, robust glassware, tumblers, wine & champagne glasses.
Place-settings & Servingware:
Bring out your collections of ceramics in different shapes, complimentary colours, and mismatched patterns.
Flatware & Servers:
Burnished stainless steel cutlery that has a time-worn feel.
Table Lighting:
Muted glass candle votives or old jam jar vessels with t-lights.
Decor:
A hand-made condiment gift in a small mason jar with a twine name tag is a thoughtful touch.
Summer Tablescape Styling Tips: Belgian Style
Belgian Style Dining is minimal, neutral, and textural. Less is more, and each component is both functional and aesthetic.
The Belgian tablescape brings natural and raw materials indoors to create a look that is both refined yet relaxed, and inviting.
Create the Belgian Look
Colour Scheme:
Bringing the outside in is the inspiration for the Belgian table setting. Muted, raw colour palette with complimentary natural, organic materials. Tables are constructed of raw, unfinished, or ebonized woods, warmed by heavy stone-washed linens in napery and upholstered or timber/iron seating options.
The Table Base:
Raw, natural wood or ebonized tables.
Napery:
Linen Napkins, heavy stonewashed tablecloths, and placemats in warm neutral hues and dark accents such as granite and charcoal colours. Grey-washed rattan placemats and coasters layered on top of the linen base for extra dimension and texture.
Centrepiece:
Substantial, heavy-bottomed hand-blown cylinder vessels in a smoked or clear glass filled with chunky pillar candles; antler candleholders; chalky white, muted dove or charcoal ceramic vases filled with fresh, hand-picked-from-the-garden greenery or architectural twigs/branches. Grey-washed rattan or pewter trays to group and gather glassware, serving ware, and accessories. Simple and uncluttered feel.
Glassware:
Clear or smoked quality hand-blown crystal glassware and pewter jugs. Less is more, quality over quantity.
Place-settings & Servingware:
Ebonized serving boards and large hand-made muted ceramic share platters and accessory dishes in neutral hues and natural glazes. Slate or horn coasters.
Flatware & Servers:
Burnished black or muted stainless steel cutlery.
Table Lighting:
Heavy-bottomed glass vessels with white, grey, taupe, or muted colour pillar candles and accents of horn or natural timber holders for dinner candles.
Decor:
Bring the natural and textural indoors. A sprig of foliage (eucalypt, buxus, or Rosemary) tied with jute string to accessorise, with a zinc or natural card name card, placed on top of a linen napkin is the epitome of Belgian festive styling. Simple, elegant, natural.
