(upbeat music)
- Part of throwing a great dinner party
is setting a beautiful and inviting table for your guests.
And that doesn't necessarily mean you have to
run out and buy a bunch of expensive tableware
or other gear in order to achieve that.
We have a whole guide to folding chairs at wirecutter.com.
But you can also use the chairs
that you have already in your home.
- Pull every chair that'll possibly work around the table.
Even if a chair seems a little short
just stick a throw pillow on it.
- Also, the other thing too that you can bring in
are side tables for putting like a salad,
or your bread, or whatever else that
if you need more table space,
'cause this is a very small table.
- You could even use like a bar stool with a tray on top.
Water pitchers don't have to live on the table.
- And if you live in a cool climate
you can always put wine in the window
and it will keep it cool.
- You do that right? - I do that.
- I love it.
- Just line it all up in the window.
- You don't need to buy a cooler,
you don't need to buy ice.
Well, you actually do need to buy ice,
but that's another story.
(jazzy music)
You might not have enough plates to serve
a party of over six people, that's fine,
because we all live that life.
There are two different types of white plates on this table.
There's the Pottery Barn Caterer's collection
which you can buy in a set of 12,
comes in a nice little box.
We also have the Ikea 365 plates,
which are three bucks a pop
and you can just buy as many as you need.
This is a great option, the Ikea 365.
- Totally, we also recommend some cheap flatware.
So this is the Gourmet Settings Windermere flatware,
and this is two bucks a pop, can buy it open stock.
So you can go in and buy exactly the amount
of flatware that you need.
We should say too, thrift stores always have
dinnerware and flatware, and so if you are
really on a budget, or you just need it really quickly
and you don't have time for it to get it shipped to you,
you can always just run in and sort of
mix and match everything and it looks...
You can tie it all together and it looks really nice.
- But, as you can tell, like this is the Windermere,
this is an old Stanley Roberts Astro,
this is a kitchen favorite, they don't make it anymore.
And like it's fine, it's fine. - You can't buy it.
(laughing)
So we also have some glassware that we recommend here.
This is the IKEA 365+.
It's a great really inexpensive water glass.
And we also recommend the Picardie, this is Duralex.
These come in all different sizes.
You can even get 'em as a water glass.
But we find that this size is really nice
for wine, or for cocktails.
And then we've even used really tiny ones as a votive.
- This is all about making due with what you have
and buying only what you need.
(festive music)
I always happen to lose napkins somehow in the wash
and every table I set now is two or three
different types of napkins, and it's fine.
These Crate and Barrel Fete napkins,
which are like 3 or $4 a piece, come in over 20 colors.
- That'ss just an example.
- That's just what we have.
We can't have all the colors.
One day we'll have all the colors.
So speaking of table linens,
we found this waffle weave bath towel on sale,
but we loved the way it looked.
- And you also used flour sack towels.
- Yeah, they're huge. - If you want to.
- You can like layer them.
- Yeah, just lay them across, these are super cheap.
(upbeat music)
- There are a few serving pieces that you will
only use once, twice, maybe three times in a year.
And one of those things is a gravy boat.
Michael uses the small butter warmer from Dansk.
We love it. - I have it at home.
- We put it in two gift guides already.
- It's more versatile than a gravy boat
because this you can use for melting butter
or like keeping sauces warm.
And then the other thing that we really recommend
is a large wood cutting board.
Before dinner you can serve cheese on it.
When you're done with your hors d'oeuvres
you can just take the whole board away,
wipe it down, clean it,
and then carve your turkey on the board.
And you don't need a platter,
you can just serve the turkey directly on it.
It's a really versatile and useful piece to have.
- It's kinda my favorite serving piece, honestly,
and I have a million.
So this is our runner up pick for casseroles.
It's great for like a little bit of a baked situation,
like a side dish for four people.
To me this is one of the most versatile pieces we have.
The bigger one, obviously, is also great
because it makes a perfect size lasagna in my opinion.
This one can go on the table and this one can go
on the buffet if you don't want this on the table.
(quirky music)
I'm sure you can tell that we did not
buy any fresh flowers for this lovely dinner party
that we are about to throw.
And you don't have to either.
Honestly, a centerpiece is nice,
but keep it small and keep it low.
This is a little bundle of dried beautiful flowers
we picked up like three weeks ago.
Also, if you don't have that...
- Yeah, if you don't have that,
if you wanna just like use a plant
that you already have in your home, that works too.
Like you don't have to have fresh flowers.
- [Lesley] I love this thing.
- There's a lot of different options.
And so we just have some air plants here
on this lovely little bowl.
Like this works too.
And it's nice and low so you can see
everyone across the table from you
and that's really nice. - You can reach
if you want a little bit of salt.
- For good luck. - For good luck.
I've always been entertaining on a shoestring
so this is how these skills are developed,
through necessity.
- And it also feels like warmer and...
- I love cozy, I love pillows, I love throws,
I love soft things, I like people to want
to linger around the table as long as possible
because I'm a sucker for conversation and wine.
- Yeah.
Keep the wine flowing. - Yes.
There's truth in wine.
(laughing)
Would you like some salt?
- Would you like some gravy?
(laughing)
- [Woman] Can you make a high five?
- Yay!