Setting your dinner party table can be an artistic endeavor with a splash of color to help your meal look its best. Setting a colorful table can be as easy as using bold colored plates or adding mix-and-match colorful napkins and place mats. Be brave, be artistic and be creative by using color to decorate your table.
What are the Rules for Color on Your Table?
Like fashion rules, there really aren’t any table color rules anymore. You can wear white after Labor Day and your purse doesn’t have to match your shoes . . . Neither does your tablecloth have to match your napkins, and in mixing and matching colors of place settings and serving dishes, anything goes.
When setting a colorful table, you be the judge. If it looks good, go with it. If it’s too busy, clashing or distracting from the food, simplify a little bit. If the food is monochromatic and looks too drab on your plain white plates, consider going with some attractive, colorful dishes.
How Color Affects Your Food
Some say that the color blue is naturally unappetizing and that for the best food presentation, you should avoid blue plates. Kraft Food Service suggests these tips:
Green is fresh, cool and soothing
Red is passionate and exciting
Black is sophisticated and elegant
Blue is a natural appetite suppressant
However, you know if your famous Parmesan Risotto looks better on a navy blue plate as opposed to a bland off-white plate. Use your own judgment and experiment with different colors and patterns.
Chef John Cirio, who has cooked in the White House and is currently owner of Five Star Cuisine, says in an article on the US Food Service Web site, that color must be considered. “You may not match the food with linen and décor, but the china and serving dishes definitely need to complement the food. Chocolate cake on a black plate looks dull, but chocolate cake on a pink plate looks vibrant. People react to all the color they see; this includes the food and the plate.”
“People . . . like china and glasses that are white, clear, black, gold, silver or pink," Cirio says.
Colorful Dishes
FiestaWare, Homer Laughlin China’s signature stoneware, has been adding touches of color to tables since the early 1920s. Homer Laughlin China was founded in 1870 by two brothers in East Liverpool, Ohio, ironically to make white china previously imported from England. By the 1920s, they were producing the colorful FiestaWare in five colors – red, cobalt blue, light green, yellow and ivory – and added more colors over the years before discontinuing the line in the 1973. The colorful dishes were brought back in 1986 with some old colors, new colors and new designs. In all there are 33 different colors of FiestaWare, including some retired and only available from private sellers and collectors. The Internet is full of dealers in FiestaWare and other stoneware.
If you’re a Fiesta fanatic, you’ll want to take a trip to Newell, W. Va., on the banks of the Ohio River, where the factory still churns out more than a dozen colors of dinnerware, serving pieces and more. An adjacent factory store sells the dishes at a discount and includes a seconds room, where you can cart of boxes full of near perfect dishes for a fraction of their department store prices. FiestaWare’s signature colors also can be found on flatware, glassware and linens.
FiestaWare collectors like to mix and match colors and palettes on a table. A table set with contrasting colors for each place setting makes a beautiful, contemporary table.
Sengware offers dishes in colors like tangerine, pistachio, pomello, pimento and coco.
Pfaltsgraff has been making dishes in beautiful colors and designs, and a Pfaltsgraff pattern often shows up on bridal registries for everyday dishes.
Waechtersbach makes dishes in 14 colors and a variety of patterns.
Colorful Table Linens
If you prefer to use plain white or cream dishes, you can add color to your table with colorful tablecloths, napkins, or by adding a colorful centerpiece. Virtually anywhere table linens are sold, you can find beautiful colors for any season, style or theme.
Some particularly attractive table linens can be found at Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn and A.H. Mercantile.
What are the Rules for Color on Your Table?
Like fashion rules, there really aren’t any table color rules anymore. You can wear white after Labor Day and your purse doesn’t have to match your shoes . . . Neither does your tablecloth have to match your napkins, and in mixing and matching colors of place settings and serving dishes, anything goes.
When setting a colorful table, you be the judge. If it looks good, go with it. If it’s too busy, clashing or distracting from the food, simplify a little bit. If the food is monochromatic and looks too drab on your plain white plates, consider going with some attractive, colorful dishes.
How Color Affects Your Food
Some say that the color blue is naturally unappetizing and that for the best food presentation, you should avoid blue plates. Kraft Food Service suggests these tips:
Green is fresh, cool and soothing
Red is passionate and exciting
Black is sophisticated and elegant
Blue is a natural appetite suppressant
However, you know if your famous Parmesan Risotto looks better on a navy blue plate as opposed to a bland off-white plate. Use your own judgment and experiment with different colors and patterns.
Chef John Cirio, who has cooked in the White House and is currently owner of Five Star Cuisine, says in an article on the US Food Service Web site, that color must be considered. “You may not match the food with linen and décor, but the china and serving dishes definitely need to complement the food. Chocolate cake on a black plate looks dull, but chocolate cake on a pink plate looks vibrant. People react to all the color they see; this includes the food and the plate.”
“People . . . like china and glasses that are white, clear, black, gold, silver or pink," Cirio says.
Colorful Dishes
FiestaWare, Homer Laughlin China’s signature stoneware, has been adding touches of color to tables since the early 1920s. Homer Laughlin China was founded in 1870 by two brothers in East Liverpool, Ohio, ironically to make white china previously imported from England. By the 1920s, they were producing the colorful FiestaWare in five colors – red, cobalt blue, light green, yellow and ivory – and added more colors over the years before discontinuing the line in the 1973. The colorful dishes were brought back in 1986 with some old colors, new colors and new designs. In all there are 33 different colors of FiestaWare, including some retired and only available from private sellers and collectors. The Internet is full of dealers in FiestaWare and other stoneware.
If you’re a Fiesta fanatic, you’ll want to take a trip to Newell, W. Va., on the banks of the Ohio River, where the factory still churns out more than a dozen colors of dinnerware, serving pieces and more. An adjacent factory store sells the dishes at a discount and includes a seconds room, where you can cart of boxes full of near perfect dishes for a fraction of their department store prices. FiestaWare’s signature colors also can be found on flatware, glassware and linens.
FiestaWare collectors like to mix and match colors and palettes on a table. A table set with contrasting colors for each place setting makes a beautiful, contemporary table.
Sengware offers dishes in colors like tangerine, pistachio, pomello, pimento and coco.
Pfaltsgraff has been making dishes in beautiful colors and designs, and a Pfaltsgraff pattern often shows up on bridal registries for everyday dishes.
Waechtersbach makes dishes in 14 colors and a variety of patterns.
Colorful Table Linens
If you prefer to use plain white or cream dishes, you can add color to your table with colorful tablecloths, napkins, or by adding a colorful centerpiece. Virtually anywhere table linens are sold, you can find beautiful colors for any season, style or theme.
Some particularly attractive table linens can be found at Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn and A.H. Mercantile.
