Inspiring Table Settings: Part 1 – A Look at What Others are Doing

Enjoyment can be found in setting a table in the library, drawing room, dining room, on the terrace, or in the garden! We’ve repurposed a vintage tiger maple cabinet similar in size to a linen press by adding a freestanding interior shelf system for place mats, tablecloths, large candlesticks, and the like.

Reading a book about the life and work of cloth designer/artist, Fortuny, inspired me to try my hand at making my own printed fabric for table linens. But first, with this post let’s take a look at inspiring table settings from others!

We found this book, Fortuny: His Life and Work, in Laurie Saunders’ shop in Boerne, Texas in the Hill Country.  She has an extensive collection of interior and garden design books. We love to stop in and see what’s new. On a recent visit, a couple laden with two large bags walked past on the way to the door, one of them exclaiming, “I am really excited about all the books we got!”

Mariano Fortuny was a painter, printmaker, and set designer as well as a designer of fabric and clothes. He lived and worked in Venice and was deeply influenced by the atmosphere and antiquities to be found there. Guillermo de Osma writes of Fortuny, “In no other field of his extraordinary output did he use his alchemy more than in the design of fabrics and clothes…creating a subtle synthesis of art and functionality, technical ingenuity and taste.” (Osma, p. 37)

Above are some examples of Fortuny fabric from another book, Fortuny Interiors. Notice the last photo of a piece of fabric draped across a table. Photos like this are where ideas begin.

The inspiration behind this Montecito home designed by Richard Halberg was a piece of antique Fortuny fabric owned by the couple who commissioned him.

        (Dining table in Deeda Blair’s apartment in Manhattan)

Using beautiful fabrics in table settings is an elegant aspect of Deeda Blair’s life. Below are some photos from her book, Deeda Blair: Food Flowers and Fantasy. Within the book she creates table settings and meals inspired by locations that have inspired her.

   (Tablecloth and setting inspired by Hubert de Givenchy and his Chateau du Jonchet)

      (Tablecloth for a fantasy dinner at Marie Antoinette’s Petit Trianon)

All three of these tablecloths are made of fabric designed by Bennison Fabrics. The Winter 2024 Milieu magazine includes a fascinating article about Gilly Newberry who along with Bennison collected antique textile documents. In 1984 Bennison bequeathed her the textile portion of his business and she spent the rest of her life producing hand printed silks and linens with patterns based on the antique textiles. The photo above is a new fabric, Gillyflower, designed by Bennison Fabrics to honor Gilly Newberry.

My husband gave me a copy of At The Artisan’s Table as a surprise. He knew it would be much appreciated as I had already purchased a copy to give as a gift to my sister when she came to the Hill Country for a visit. Authors Jane Schulak and David Stark devised a captivating concept of combining a work of decorative art from the past with that of a contemporary practicing artisan and creating table settings exemplifying plaster, paper mache, metalwork, blue and white, chinoserie and others through the table setting and objects on the table. A feast for the eyes and the mind!

Artisan Laurent Poumat, owner of Farfelus Farfadets near Paris, creates objects using layers of paper and glue (paper mache). He states, “I like the idea of using everyday, inexpensive, and simple materials that I can ennoble.” This table setting features his golden paper mache candlesticks with brass bobeche inserts on a plain cloth surrounded by French and Venetian glass and hand-crafted ceramic plates.

Master craftsman and artist Tyler Hays created these ceramic pieces from clay dug in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Lostine, Oregon. He is passionate about engaging in every aspect of the process, stating “I’m a junkie for making everything myself. I’m not interested unless I can control the whole process.” Ceramics are but one of his many talents! His work in furniture and other media can be seen at BDDW and M. Crow and Company, (New York) and M. Crow (Oregon).

This table setting anchored with a black and white checked cloth features his hand painted ceramic pieces set on tin plates with a background of cardboard “tiles” created by the authors of the book.

With all of this in mind, let me take you inside the process of creating my own table linens and setting a table with our vintage table wares. You can read about this in the post titled, Inspiring Table Settings: Part 2 – A Look at What I Am Doing