How to make your Christmas table setting shine
Floral designer and creative stylist Annemarie O’Leary is one of the very best in her field, numbering Druid’s Glen and the Fitzwilliam amongst her clients. Just for us, she turns her attention to designing a perfect Christmas table:
“The very first thing to consider,” says Annmarie, “is the type of style you are aiming for. There are usually three main styles.
Chic Contemporary is the type of thing you might do in a modern apartment and I use it in a lot of my styling for the Fitzwilliam.
It’s all about contemporary furnishings and layout, lots of clean lines and would feature lots of baubles, silver, purple and pewter colours.
Don’t add any foliage, no softness. It’s almost industrial, metallic wires, clean, sharp and edgy.
“Then you’d have Natural Rustic, where it’s very much a return to foraging, going out and gathering, all the ‘ingredients’. Bare branches give texture and dimension, holly and berries offer beautiful colour.
“At Christmas, the season is kind of asleep, you are mirroring the seasons outside, and what’s in season is so beautiful.
“Traditional Christmas is lots of reds and golds and tiered candlelight to soften the scene and create a magical glow, it’s the Christmas of childhood dreams, Miracle on 34th Street.
“You can take these three styles as starting points and then impose your own personal style on them, make them reflective of your personality and give them your own unique imprint. First, think of the type of ‘audience’ or guests you have for the dinner and use whichever style above is the best fit.
“For example, a family Christmas for young and old is probably best suited to the Traditional Christmas style.
“Now, instead of going out and mass buying and putting a runner down the length of the table, gather together your own little bits and pieces, you might have some beautiful little heirlooms.
“I have loads of individual candlesticks. It doesn’t have to be uniform, in fact, it’s nice to mix and match and go for a ‘beautifully undone’ feel.
“You can gather foliage and there is so much at this time of year that lends itself to creating a ‘woodland’ scene. If you get gold or silver paint, you can spray pine cones and insert the name card and put them in the appropriate place setting.
“And make sure to place some of your decorations at child’s eye level as well and if they’re at an age where they are still clambering all over the table, maybe opt for votive candles instead of tall and easily-toppled ones.
“If you are not going to use a tablecloth and show off a lovely tabletop, you can protect it by putting clingfilm under surfaces.
“Also, it’s nice to create a little bit of a ceremony with cutlery or napkin, tying them up with beautiful red ribbon and a personal note, it just shows you care.
“It’s important to be practical and keep in mind the length of time required to ‘create’ the table, as it is a very busy day.
“If you’re lucky enough to be able to avoid using the table for Christmas breakfast, you could lay it all out the night before and you can assemble all the ‘ingredients’ weeks before. You could have a trial run a week or two before Christmas.
“If you let the children help, you could even start a new family Christmas tradition.
“Finally, I also go in for ‘ambient’ styling, ensuring there are Christmas aromas to greet guests in the porch or hallway but avoid scented candles and go for natural oils and keep all scents away from dining areas—food and non-food scents are not a good mixture!
