LIFESTYLE | How To Make A Beautiful Table Setting At Home

On Sunday I hosted Afternoon Tea for my family for the first time. Of all honesty I was pretty nervous about the whole thing. Baking and cooking are not my forte but I do love a tad of interior design so focussed my nervous energy into making the table look beautiful and here's how it turned out...

The table cloth is a huge part of the aesthetic and as my dining table is in my lounge I chose something homely and ensured it matched the colour theme and style of the lounge. This particular one is from Zara Home. 

I then thought paper napkins might have made it look less put together and if you're buying them every time you entertain they'd add up, so these linen napkins from Amazon are perfect for the environment, your purse and the look of the setting. After scouring Pinterest for ideas I popped to The Works and bought these shabby chic tiles with letters on and some pipe cleaner inspired by Winter greenery. 

I simply pinched the napkins to a point and then wrapped the letters around with string and poked the pipe cleaner through. Simple, easy and very effective! This would make a perfect way of showing where people are to sit, except if like my guests you double up on people with the same first letter!

Due to this I needed another way of directing people to their seat and I decided on little goody bags, these ones are from HobbyCraft. I filled mine with a mix of sweets and chocolate but for a big occasion you could definitely personalise your gifts per guests.

I used a gold marker to write everyones names on their goody bags and placed it on their plate with their napkin.  I do regret how I wrote the names and in the future I shall do it more delicately by adding a gift tag to the bag and writing on that.

A lovely touch my mum has always done at family meals is to type a menu, it's such a fun addition to the table whilst serving a purpose! You could make these as fancy or plain as you wish, I made mine on PowerPoint and then printed them out in A5. If you're able to print them in card then they'd look great stood up in the middle of the table too.

I hope you like how I decorated the table and it's given you some ideas for when you're next hosting.