Now that our dining-room makeover is complete, I’m looking forward to styling the table for festive feasts – especially as we’re hosting Christmas this year. (Have I mentioned that before….? As you might have guessed, I’m a little excited!).
Creating a beautiful table is always something I enjoy, and it needn’t be time-consuming or expensive – in fact all you need is a bit of seasonal foliage and lots of flickering candles. To show just how easy it is, here’s a look at how I’m planning to dress my festive table this year.
For a simple but striking centrepiece, I arranged sprigs of fir in bud vases dotted in clusters along the length of the table. I just snipped a few branches off the back of our Christmas tree, but if you don’t have a real tree you can pick up bundles of fir from most florists. Eucalyptus, soft ruscus and olive would also look wonderful.
Next, I added tall candles in simple black holders, together with a few tea lights in glass jars. I also dotted pine cones around the table for an extra festive touch.
For the place settings, I kept things equally simple with plain grey linen napkins folded in rectangles over the plates and topped with pine cones. I’m not going to bother with name cards as we’ll have no more than six people, but if you wanted to you could easily use the cones as holders and slot cards into the prongs.
Finally, to give the room as a whole a bit of impact I suspended a trio of paper stars from the ceiling using sewing cotton and masking tape. It’s a great way to make a feature from a bare swathe of wall, and the stars can be folded away and reused year after year (last Christmas I decorated the fireplace in our living room with them, as you can see in this post).
If you want to recreate this look yourself, here’s a list of everything I used:
White linen tablecloth, £39.99, H&M Home
‘Burr’ smoked-glass bud vases, £12 for a set of three, MADE.com
Grey ‘Puritan’ dinnerware, £68 for a 12-piece set, John Lewis & Partners
Grey linen napkins, £3.99 each, H&M Home
‘HEDERLIG’ red-wine glasses, £1 each, IKEA
Ferm Living ‘Ripple’ tumblers, £35 for a set of four, Cloudberry Living
Black cutlery, £8.99 for a set of four knives, forks or spoons, H&M Home
Ester & Erik tapered grey candles, £2.35 each, Cloudberry Living
Black candle holders, £8.99 each, H&M Home
‘GALEJ’ glass tea-light holders, £1 for a set of four, IKEA
Paper stars, bought last year but you can find similar at Rose & Grey
All photography by Abi Dare
I love this christmas table setting & have been inspired. I have just ordered the Burr bud vases & H&M candle holders & linen napkins. I will pick up the glass tea light holders on my next visit to Ikea!
Thank you for listing the items used & the links.
Wishing you a very happy christmas x
Thanks so much Stephanie! I’m so glad you found it useful – it’s wonderful to know people find my posts inspiring. Have a wonderful Christmas!
Abi, this is brilliant! Just what I needed! We’re hosting for the first time this year and I’m determined to have our festive table looking modern, minimal (and monochrome of course!), and I think this is really rocking the vibe I was hoping for. Thank you x
A pleasure, and thank you so much! I’m sure your table will be a beautiful monochrome delight! xx
Gorgeous! This blog post proves that we don’t have to spend a fortune on trivial things like Christmas decorations and instead going back to basics and getting in tune with nature actually produces better results. The whole idea of Christmas trees etc is bringing the outdoors indoors and you do just that. Lovely blend of minimalism and nature.
Thanks so much Francesca! I love minimalism with a bit of a natural touch, and you’re so right – you don’t need much to create a festive atmosphere. Really appreciate your kind words!