The Art of Tablescaping: It Really Doesn’t Need to Be That Serious

I have always loved a beautifully laid table. Not necessarily a perfect table — actually, quite often the opposite.

Give me mismatched glasses, slightly crumpled linen, flowers cut from the garden and far too many candles and I am very happy.

For me, tablescaping has never really been about setting a table correctly. It is about creating a feeling. That little moment when someone walks into a room, sees the table and immediately knows they are in for a lovely evening.

And despite what Instagram might have us believe, you really don't need a florist, twelve matching place settings and a degree in napkin folding to do it.

Start with one thing you love

I nearly always start a table with one piece.

It might be a ridiculous plate I couldn't leave behind, an amber glass, a beautiful piece of linen or a bowl of lemons from the kitchen. That becomes the beginning of the story and everything else can grow around it.

Don't worry too much about whether things technically match. I think tables are infinitely more interesting when they don't.

A little old with a little new. Something ornate next to something incredibly simple. Expensive pieces mixed with things you found for a few pounds. That's what gives a table personality.

Please don't save the good things for best

I am firmly against this.

Use the lovely glasses on a Tuesday. Light the candles when you're having pasta. Get the plates you love out when friends come over rather than keeping them at the back of a cupboard for Christmas.

Beautiful things are much more enjoyable when they become part of your life.

And if something eventually gets chipped? I actually quite like that too.

A table should feel generous

This doesn't mean filling every available inch.

A few bowls of food down the middle, bread wrapped in linen, a jug of water, candles at different heights and something green can do an enormous amount.

I love tables that look as though they've evolved rather than been installed. Nothing too symmetrical, nothing too pristine and absolutely nothing that prevents you from seeing the person sitting opposite you.

You are, after all, supposed to be having dinner.

Flowers don't have to mean flowers

Some of my favourite tables have barely had any.

Branches, herbs, bowls of fruit, tomatoes still on the vine, artichokes, lemons, figs — use whatever happens to be beautiful at the time.

And if you are using flowers, you don't necessarily need enormous arrangements. A handful of little vessels dotted along a table can be far more charming, and considerably easier to talk over.

Lighting is everything

I will die on this hill.

Turn the big light off.

Candles make almost anything look wonderful. Mix tapers with little votives, use different heights and don't worry if the candlesticks don't match.

A slightly wonky candle and pools of warm light are infinitely more inviting to me than a table that looks untouched.

Ultimately, make it yours

There are rules for formal table setting. Tablescaping is something different.

It's storytelling.

Maybe yours is all white linen, crystal and silver. Maybe it's stripes, tomatoes and bright orange glasses in the garden. Maybe it's antique china with supermarket flowers and takeaway pizza.

If it makes you want to pull up a chair, it's working.

That is really the thinking behind the Clementine & Moss Suites. We've curated complete table stories for those moments when you want the finished look, but every piece can also be bought individually and mixed into things you already own.

Because the loveliest tables aren't copied exactly.

They're collected, borrowed, inherited, discovered and, eventually, made completely your own.