Adding Summer Color to a White Dining Table Setting
In this post: If you could only have one set of table decor, I would suggest a white dining table setting. Here’s how to add summer color to make your white table unique.⇒
I love a blank slate.
Fresh beginnings, starting from scratch, a bare clean foundation.
So it’s no surprise, when it comes to table settings, I enjoy working with a pure white base. From this vantage point, I can build on an elegant underpinning, add just a few new items and come up with a completely fresh look.
Today I’m joining with a group of my blogging friends to bring you the summer edition of Styled + Set, the blog hop that aims to inspire you for seasonal entertaining in style. Please be sure to visit the wonderful selection of posts linked at the bottom.
For my summer table, I set my vision of the perfect clean slate – a casually elegant tableau comprised of all my favorite design elements, placed in my nearly all-white breakfast room. From there, I could add summer color at whim.
White Dining Table Setting
The bedrock of this look is what I perceive as an all white dining room table setting. It’s not actually all white, but incorporates crystal and silver, as well. Much like my style when decorating my rooms, I love to mix aged but beautiful French pieces with chippy casual worn items. It’s very “denim and diamonds”, so to speak, and is the hallmark of my style. On this table, it takes shape through almost entirely vintage pieces.
Starting with the plate stack, I used my favorite pewter chargers and layered on 2 different Limoges china patterns. Both have tiny pink flower borders and a bit of gilded edging, but from a few feet back, they still read as predominately white.
The plates sit atop a laundered linen tablecloth with ruffled edges, draped over our white farmhouse dining table. They’re surrounded by a ragtag assortment of French side chairs, and in the background you might also spy something new to our breakfast room.
This is the one room in our house that, up until now, had no window coverings. Facing the woods and not really needing privacy, I loved having the light shine in. But one corner peeked at my neighbor’s patio and I thought it was finally time to finish the room properly and add something to the windows.
I truly wanted the least intrusive option and so I went with plantation shutters for the bottom half of the windows. They provide just enough privacy while allowing in as much light as possible and you may remember how awesome they looked in our basement remodel. They’re very affordable yet are of superior quality!
With the white foundation laid, and the cool vintage vibe defined, it was time to add in a note of summer. I decided to do that by simply adding fresh flowers, most notably via the simplest of centerpieces. I filled my chippiest garden urn to brimming over with a lush display of pink peonies and the curious mix of exquisitely delicate blooms against the rusty urn set my heart aflutter. This is the stuff tabelscape dreams are made of (well, for me anyway!)
I tucked sweet pink roses into my crystal napkin rings, creating the perfect contrast against the crisp white embroidered napkins.
Side note – these favorite napkin rings of mine are an old set from Pottery Barn, long discontinued and hard to find, so you won’t find them in the resource list below, but you can occasionally find them on eBay or elsewhere on the web if you search voraciously.
I often find the use of one particular element can ‘throw a look’ into a different direction and give unique personality to the table or room in question. On this table, that element was the inclusion of deep orange tulips and they’re the key to rooting this table into the realm of summer. Pink, on it’s own, could channel any season, but mix fuchsia with flaming orange and the seasonal message is clear.
What’s so characteristic about this table setting is that despite the colorful presentation, if you strip away the flowers, it’s at heart a simple white dining table. Change up the flowers and you have a completely different perspective and attitude. Some other summer combinations to try with white are:
- Blue and yellow
- Shades of purple and lavender
- Red, white and blue
- White with green
- A full palette of pink, purple, yellow and green
More and more I find myself gravitating toward a clean white slate of vintage components as the quintessential underpinning for the home styling that makes me happy. Whether it’s a room or a vignette, a tablescape or an entire house, get those components right and the rest is easy!
Resource Guide
To get the look, click on the items below for direct links to the products. Where actual items were no longer available, I’ve provided similar options. If an item is out of stock but may be restocked, I left it on the list.
(This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.)
Please enjoy all my friends’ posts below:
On Sutton Place | Shabbyfufu | Ella Claire
Edith & Evelyn Vintage | Maison de Cinq | StoneGable
Have you visited the Designthusiasm shop? Click below to shop my favorites, my Instagram and my Amazon shop. Enjoy!!
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Such a gorgeous table as always, Lory! The mix of fuchsia with the orange is such a perfect summer combo and I love how it pops against all your white. And of course, that urn makes my heart go pitter patter – it makes the table!! 🙂
Sheila
xo
Thank you so much, Sheila!! I had fun with this one. Going almost entirely vintage… 🙂
Lory,
As usual, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! It’s so funny that you mentioned the napkin rings because I was actually going to ask you where you got them?!
Ah, yes, the napkin rings! They are so special. I wish they didn’t discontinue them. I get asked all the time… 🙂
Lory,
Love all your designs. However, I am wondering where you put your platters of food since the table is already set and so beautifully. Do you remove your plates to the kitchen, plate them and then bring them back in individually ?
Karen
Thank you, Karen! Yes, I never put platters of food on the table. I typically serve buffet style or plate everything in the kitchen.
Absolutely beautiful! I have been eyeballing and drooling over your tablescapes for some time now. I am wondering how your store all of your goodies? You have such a lovely variety or dishes and linens, I am wondering how you keep track of all of them! Also, I have been looking for the perfect white dishes for a loooong time and can’t seem to make up my mind. Do you have a favorite? Best wishes…
Thank you so much, Leslie! I’ve been meaning, for a while, to do a post about where I store my tabletop items, but my neat system has been needing updating as my collection has grown. It’s coming soon, or at least one of these days… 😉 I do have a favorite, but I don’t own them yet. I love Arte Italica’s Finezza pattern in white. Some day you will see them on a table of mine, though… 🙂
So gorgeous as always, Lory! Thanks for organizing such a beautiful tour.
Hugs, Jamie
Thank you sweet Jamie!!
Oh! Adding the orange tulips was BRILLIANT!
Thanks for the links – I bought the peonies (they were such a good price!) and the tulips. LOVE that combination! Still looking for roses in the right color.
Are your peonies real or faux? If they’re faux, they’re phenomenal quality.
Thank you! These peonies are real, but I have faux throughout the house too. 🙂
Love your tablescapes Lory….they are always so elegant and classy. Thanks for bringing us together, as always. xo, Janet
My pleasure sweet friend!!
What a beautiful table, Lory! I love the pop of color!
Thank you so much, Kristen!
Gorgeous, as always! I am drooling over the Limoges china–would you be so kind as to let us know the patterns, pretty please. Everything you put together is simply stunning, Lory, and I’m always so excited to view your posts. Have been enjoying our fabulous weather –a far cry from last year’s almost constant rainy spring days. Thanks ever so much for the info. on Blindsgalore–came just in time as we are ready to tackle that change from blinds to shutters–can’t wait for that new look! Hugs!
So glad to hear that about the shutters!! They’re awesome! Thanks also for your kind words. I actually tried ti track down the name of the Limoges patterns but to no avail. I wish they just labels the back… 😉
There are so many lovely little touches on this table…I especially love the flower in the napkin ring. Thank you so much for all the work you do to gather us together. You are the best!
Aww, thank you Ann!! It’s truly a pleasure with this group… 🙂
SO perfectly perfect! The all white foundation is totally near and dear to my heart! 😉 Thank you for another stunning table to sigh over and inspire me!
Thank you so much for the kind words, Barbara!!
I love the elegance and comfort of your tables. They are so inviting and your chandelier is incredible. It amazes me how you can put together so many beautiful tablescapes. XOXO
Stunning, as usual! I especially love the ruffled tablecloth. A lovely combination of neutrals with a pop of color!
So pretty. Love the shutters and is that little gold salt cellar part of a set? It is so cute.
Thanks so much!! So glad you spotted my favorite little salt cellar. It’s from Michael Aram, so more part of a collection than a set. I love his stuff. My paper towel holder is from him too: https://rstyle.me/+wb2W9WebUdUUUbz6KjWWuw