Confidence in your table

Confidence in how you show off your your table doesn’t always arrive with a bold entrance. Sometimes, it builds quietly, step by step, as we try new pieces, even when we’re unsure of the outcome. Our tables do reflect ourselves … what we think is pretty, how we imagine entertaining our guests (and ourselves), and what our relationship is with food and even fun! Every piece you bring to your table offers a purpose - serving food, adding a visible feature, or just being a pretty thing to enjoy. Becoming confident in how you present your table doesn’t happen overnight, and it sure doesn’t happy all at once!

The key to finding your tablesetting joy is to keep your eye open to what makes you happy. I used to be thrilled with a solid white table … white plates, white napkins, and a white tablecloth. These days, I’ve become much more maximalist with contrasting patterns and colors, but that didn’t happen in a blink. It took lots of time viewing other people’s tables, finding things that sparked joy for me, and then trying them out on family and friends to see what truly worked. Just like everything else, just because it’s visibly perfect doesn’t mean it works for dinner. I set a gorgeous table for Christmas last year, but there was so much on the table that it was too distracting to eat! I took the pictures, and then simplified before friends and family arrived. I didn’t want to make them uncomfortable, and I still found joy through the whole thing.

You don’t need to be fearless to set a table you love, you just need to be willing. Willing to try, willing to learn, and willing to believe that you’re capable of more than you know.