Do you like colorful or patterned dinnerware sets? (sand, light, design)
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I'm all about color and patterns right now. I had Pfaltzgraff's Heritage pattern which is all white and I grew tired of how boring (and heavy) it looked. After 20 years and a few pieces broke, I donated it and used some solid burgundy salad plates I had acquired while I contemplated my next purchase. I bought several of the Anthropologie latte bowls in different colors, which I love. I'm indecisive by nature, but I finally settled on these beautiful "Wildflower Study" dinner plates, also through Anthropologie.
I'll complement them with either plain white scalloped or solid color salad plates.
Lately, I'm all about color and patterns and not being too matchy. Despite a short stint working in the china and crystal departments of a few stores, I'm not really into dinnerware sets. I do have an appreciation for a clean looking table setting using white dinnerware, but I'll never use stoneware again.
Do you set your table with colorful plates and would you buy dinnerware sets for each holiday if you did not have to worry about storing the plates? How many sets do you own? There are so many different designs out there and it is just so hard to decide which color or pattern to buy...and I am just curious if anyone else is tempted to buy new sets every season when they are in stores.
No. I prefer simple white, (or any light solid color) china dinnerware, so whoever eats my homemade meals can admire them on a plain plate.
Patterns look busy and conceal the beauty of carefully plated/piled meal. Patterns and multiple colors just draw attention away from the food itself.
I love Polish pottery and have been collecting it for decades. So errrr, yes, I do have patterned dishes, for every day as well as for special occasions, because I also inherited two large sets of vintage dishes from the 1930s and 1940s - one set from my grandmother and one set from my mother in law. They are very different - the one from my MIL is richer colors and works great for winter holidays and the other has a fleur de lis pattern and is from New Orleans (my birthplace) and is in more spring or summery colors (was my grandmother's).
I love setting a nice table and I have lots of coordinating napkins, place mats, chargers, etc for various occasions.
Oops, found some more pictures of my colorful china and pottery - I love color and vibrancy and I don't think it necessarily "takes away from" the food. But to each his own. A beautiful table can be set with all sorts of china and patterns, or no patterns.
Last edited by KathrynAragon; 12-28-2017 at 09:55 AM..
Ive always had white dinnerware. My formal is white with a platinum band and my everyday is solid white. I used to entertain a lot. I had salad plates in various colors or patterns pertaining to holidays or events I could combine with my solid white if I chose. Since we are downsizing I sold all my salad plates. I don't entertain on the scale I once did. I am happy with my white!
I have white Johnson Brothers white Regency dishes. I grew up with them and then bought my own after having other kinds of dishes. So.y, they are no longer made in England and the new ones made in China don’t really match or compare to the quality of mine.
I used to have vintage JB Wild Turkey china but lost it in an accident.
DH bought these a couple of years ago for Easter from Williams Sonoma.
Elegant, simple, tough, white porcelain. I do have a few blue & grey sushi plates, and some noodle bowls with a kind of abstract swirling motif. While I love to look at various designs on dishes, I tried buying some and quickly got sick of them. I have absolutely no desire for multiple sets of dishes. Mine are casual enough for everyday, and nice enough that they wouldn't look out of place in a high end restaurant.
I have the space to store several sets of dishware, and since the sets I store are also nostalgic to me (and one set is actually quite valuable), and since I enjoy setting different table settings and hosting dinner parties, I love having the various options. I also have a big collection of vintage and antique (and some heirloom) linens, including lots of beautiful cloth napkins and various napkin rings. Runners, table cloths, you name it. I even have two large sets of flatware - one is much more formal than the other - and several sets of beautiful glasses. One set is clear crystal, one set is heavy vintage cobalt blue cut glass, and one set is funky vintage glass with wide silver stripes - this set also includes wine glasses and champagne flutes.
So yeah - I love it. And get this - apparently this love is inherited because I inherited and have already given (to my daughters) several large sets of dishes, including my grandmother's extensive set of vintage (from the 1940s) FiestaWare. Then I had a set that my mother collected for me as I was growing up - it was too formal for my taste but it's a large set and then I added a lot of crystal to it when we lived in Germany and heavy crystal everything was abundant. And my daughters use the HECK out of those dishes so like I said, I guess setting elaborate, colorful tables runs in our family down both sides and several generations.
I got into Polish pottery (and then gave the FiestaWare to one of my daughters) because it "spoke" to me and because I love the rich, riotous colors and how mixing and combining patterns is so easy. And I lived near the Polish border so quite a bit of my pottery actually came straight from my visits to Poland, and while living and then visiting Germany. It's also often found on military installations in the US and Europe so my daughters have picked some up for me over the years too.
When we remodeled our kitchen, I actually took a piece of Polish pottery with me to the first meeting with the designer. I said, "I want the kitchen surfaces to be quiet because I have a lot of THIS," and as soon as I pulled that piece out, her face brightened up and the whole thing came together. We chose basically a very soft moss green background and soapstone countertops and a travertine floor (all quiet but not quite neutrals) so that the pieces of Polish pottery were what would pop - not the backsplash or counter tops though they're nice (the backsplash is just opaque subway tile).
I tried to go with plain dishes once - before I committed to fully throwing myself into the Polish pottery thing and after I'd given my daughter the FiestaWare, I had just some serving pieces of the pottery so I went with a nice, heavy cream colored plain set of pottery dishes. They were nice but I just couldn't go there over time, so when our youngest graduated we gave him all those plain white dishes and I began collecting the plates and bowls and mugs of Polish pottery. That was about six years ago and I absolutely love it and can't imagine using anything else.
It's not trendy, and it's not in trendy colors, but it's fun and funky and has just that touch of European country flair that I love so much.
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