By Olivia Lidbury Entertainment 25.07.2023

9 Summer Tablescapes for Your Next Girls Night

Make a beautifully set table your new love language.

Summer is the season of hosting. Whether you’re planning a leisurely brunch or a barbeque with a supporting cast of large salads, a sure way to impress your nearest and dearest is with a beautifully laid table.

We’ve scoured Instagram for the most memorable ideas around – pick and mix your favourites and get earning that ‘hostess with the mostess’ title. Cheers!

1. Be playful

Disrupting the normal order of things can make traditional table-setting feel fresh. We love how our Scalloped Napkins have been positioned unfolded under bowls in this lush setup. Simple but so effective, it pays to think outside the box when laying the essentials.

2. Pare it back

You don’t need endless decorative details to set the scene (in fact, too many extras often leads to having nowhere to set down the actual food!). Another vote for artfully knotted napkins, note that a pretty place mat will do all the hard work for you.

3. Pick a theme

It’s amazing what you can ‘shop’ from your own home to create a considered table. In this case, a foraged branch and a bowl of fresh limes elevate a lunch to new levels. Just make sure to work around a colour palette to stop it looking too haphazard.

4. Gingham is always a good idea

… you can mis-match it, and no-one will notice. Use a gingham tea towel to line a bread (or pastry) basket and remember that a pretty roll of ribbon is the next-best thing to a formal napkin ring.

5. Make the most of your menu

Bring the restaurant feeling home with a menu shouting loudly and proudly about what’s in store. It doesn’t have to be professionally printed, it could be simply hand written on card with a squiggly border.

6. Flaunt the produce

There’s a burgeoning trend for anything but flowers on a tabletop; veggies are firmly leading the way, and fruits are a cute addition. Call on what you have on your kitchen window or fridge – whether that's a pot of basil or a succulent bunch of grapes for an alternative take on your five-a-day.

7. Budding beauty

If you’ve splashed out on the best ingredients for the food, curb your flower costs by buying single stems, or an inexpensive supermarket bouquet and decanting each flower into a bud vase (small milk pourers and candle votives can also be used for this).

8. Always make a meal of it

Even if all that’s on the menu is a few nibbles – or some bubbles and cake – make it a moment to remember by setting the table. We love this muted and textural approach which can be recreated with linen placemats.

9. Improvise!

Don’t get too hung up on coordination; if you don’t have 12 matching plates, then alternate each place setting making it even more of a feast for the eyes. The same applies to glassware and crockery – if it looks intentional, no-one will ever think it’s a work-around.