This would be for a table you use daily. I’ve had a basket with artificial flowers for years. It’s lightweight, with a handle and I move it all the time when we want to read the paper, etc. But, it’s just not the look I’m after. Do you move your centerpiece? Is it low, high? I think I need a lower one, so I don’t feel the need to move it when we eat. It doesn’t block our view of faces, it just seems to separate us. Just wondering what you all use.
I have a very large, wide lbut low rimmed bowl from a pottery place that someone gave me as a gift-it is filled with fruit, typically apples, clementines, kiwi and bananas. It stays there unless I need to move it during dinner to make room for serving dishes.
Homework. 8-|
Nothing. It’s bare.
It never occurred to me to put any sort of centerpiece on the kitchen table.
If you don’t put anything, do you keep placemats on your table? I have 4 placemats and it looks like a huge empty hole without something in the middle.
We use the dining room table every day, since our kitchen’s too small for one. Basically we clear off one end of all the stuff that gathers–computers, paperwork, my H’s newly planted
seedlings, keys, etc., so the two of us can eat.
Uh, centerpiece?
No placemats left on the table. Just totally bare.
I do keep a huge orchid on the middle of my large kitchen island, though. I like orchids because they last for months.
On kitchen table, very practical placemats stacked in middle. A hot plate is on top, which adds some color. Salt and pepper shakers.
The dining room table has a bowl bought at a craft show, filled with crafted grapes, wine bottle, bread, … It becomes wrapping table during the holidays.
In my mother’s house, there were placemats on the kitchen table and two fancy candlesticks on the dining room table. These items sent the message “These tables are not to be used for anything other than eating,” and in fact that’s what actually happened. Nobody would ever have thought of using either table for any other purpose.
This is not the way my household lives. The kitchen and dining room tables at our house are used for lots of things. My husband is currently using the dining room table to do our taxes. A couple of months ago, the same table was my Christmas gift-wrapping headquarters. When my kids were still at home, there was often an in-progress school project spread all over the table. I like living this way, even though it’s less attractive than my mother’s approach. Form is less important to me than function.
My dining room table (where we eat dinner every day) has a ceramic bowl I love that I got at pier 1 years ago. The bowl is sometimes empty and sometimes has oranges in it. We push it to the side while we are eating dinner.
My kitchen table (which is not actually a table but a peninsula counter (abutting a wall with cabinets on the bottom, granite top, and two stools ) is where we eat breakfast and lunch. When my daughter was still home it was her homework spot and it was always covered with books, papers, etc. Now I have two small bowls (bowl/plates you would eat pasta in with a scenic design) and one usually has bananas or apples and one usually has tomatoes. The surface is big enough and they are against the wall so they don’t need to be moved when we eat at the table.
We have a placemat inthe center, and on the placemat are some cute, whimsical salt and pepper shakers and a matching (well coordinated, but not completely identical) napkin holder. I bought them at craft shows. They are made by the same artist but bought at different times so aren’t completely identical in pattern but clearly coordinate. Cute and functional.
Lazy Susan, with napkin holder and salt and pepper shakers. We eat all our meals at the kitchen table unless we have company, so we opt for practical. I would not like anything that needs to be moved when we eat. We also have a low deep windowsill right next to the table, where I have several decorative pottery pieces displayed, so no need to dress up the table. We use the LS for small side dishes and whatever condiments we need for the meal, and in the summer there is often a bud vase of fresh cut flowers on it.
My placemats are vinyl, easy to wipe off. I keep them there to dull the sound of a cup or glass if we sit to talk and not eat. It is a highly used table!! They aren’t fancy by any means. I guess they also give a little color. I don’t have an island. Just trying to get ideas on what to use in the center. It really does look empty.
At the last few crafts shows, I met a couple who sell ceramic bowls that look exactly like real fruit. My male friend bought the watermelon, and I did too, but mine was given as a gift. Then I bought the large cantaloupe for my male friend. They aren’t too expensive. I wish I could post the link, but I guess that’s against CC rules. ( try vegetable bowls, which isn’t exact name).
Tablecloth and a lazy susan with napkins and salt, pepper, Siracha on our everyday table.
@bookworm You can post a link as long as it isn’t a blog. They sound nice!
A centerpiece on the table we use daily? That would be NONE. We don’t need another dust collector, or thing that needs to be moved around every time we eat.
We have a very small lazy Susan on our table. There is nothing ON it all the time decorative…but when we eat, we sometimes put the condiments on it for easy access.
We stack our placemats in the center of our rectangular table with a wide decorative open-slated metal bowl filled with lemons, limes, bananas and avocado on top. The metal is a light green and and the placemats are cork-backed and hand-painted so they add some color to the kitchen table.
A very colorful lazy susan.