Itchy for green outdoors? Start indoors, with a table setting of garden theme dishes! Earth Day is on Monday this year. That makes this weekend an ideal time to bring out the summer-y garden and floral dishes, to satisfy your need to enjoy growing things. Start with any green dishes or glassware you might already […]
Mix and match china, glass and linens on your table setting to create something original and unique. Bring the best of old and new together to delight your guests, even before they sit down to dinner. Painting with dinnerware, and accessories, too. A new Irish tea towel, in a linen and cotton blend, can work […]
Tips to use mismatched cups and saucers for an eclectic table setting If you shop thrift stores for dinnerware, you’ve probably done it, too. You just have to have those darling, charming, funky, lovely, delicate, classy, retro or just plain wonderful vintage cups in the store, even though the saucers are nowhere to be found. […]
Cherry Thieves is a vintage Johnson Brothers china pattern from the late 1960s. It features birds and cherries, on stylized tree branches. A reader, Priya, wrote to me about this pattern, and I’ve been looking into it ever since.(Update: found!) Until I found this pattern, the closest I got was a similar Johnson Brothers pattern […]
Blue and white dinnerware is popular for both traditional and causal table settings. These colors convey a crisp and calm vibe. Blue is a favorite color. Why not jump at the chance to use more of it when closing dinnerware for daily use and for entertaining. The world of traditional dinnerware has expanded beyond what […]
Someone asked me about a replacement pattern for Federalist china, produced by Sears in the late 1960s and 1970s. This traditional white dinnerware remains sought-after by its tenacious fans, all these years later. Specifically, the plain white Federalist, though this china was also produced in a few solid colors. I’ve been looking in all my […]
In one of the prior economic downturns, in the mid-1970s, bold colorful dinnerware was also in fashion. A friend gave me some old home decorating magazines from the 1960s and 1970s, days I remember well. It was fascinating going through them, looking at the designer rooms, tableware displays, and the advertising from those decades. I […]
Vintage and new dinnerware sets show the long-term appeal of apple china patterns! Some patterns go with red, as you’d expect. Others focus on green apples. And there are versions that have both red and green pieces to mix and match in your table setting. One example, the Apple Pie pattern by Franciscan (see thumbnail […]
You don’t have to be using a country theme table setting to enjoy quilt motif dinnerware. But you could! A table setting based on a quilt theme can reach into classic and traditional themes based on Early American styles. Or it can harmonize with modern designs, in sleek shapes and stylish colors. It can be […]
I couldn’t stop playing with the dishes, so I came up with some more Missoni table setting ideas. Missoni for Target dinnerware provides lots and lots of table setting inspiration. I used a salad plate in the Passione pattern, purple family colors, big chunks of raspberry and white in between the center color bands. Continuing […]
Green glassware can mix and match with lots of different tableware patterns, both glass and china. Vintage glass in the Soreno Green pattern by Anchor Hocking was created in the late 1960s and has classic retro style that is still relevant to today’s table settings. This pattern was made in multiple colors, in addition to […]
Finding special vintage dishes is fun! See what I brought home with me in recent weeks, including some extra special items.
My dishie antennae perk up when I see pieces of Mikasa’s Mediterrania line in my shopping travels. The patterns are so retro. Many of them show the best of modern style from the 1970s. The shapes are simple and sleek. The colors and motifs just work for me. I think Blue Bird is probably my […]