Carole Bamford's Guide To Table Setting | Daylesford Living
We are delighted to introduce the latest book by our founder, Carole Bamford, which invites you to step inside the world of Daylesford.
Through elegant table settings, homegrown flower arrangements, seasonal recipes and sumptuous photography, Daylesford Living: Inspired by Nature celebrates design, craft and the joy of entertaining alongside exclusive glimpses into Carole Bamford’s Cotswold home and gardens. Readers will find themselves immersed in the quintessential style for which Daylesford is so well known.
Here we share an exclusive excerpt on how to create the perfect seasonal table setting. To read the chapter in full, order your copy here.
"Whatever the occasion, whether it’s a simple supper for me and my husband, a casual dinner party for friends or a big celebration, I like to make an effort with the table setting. Mealtimes have always been important to me. They are an opportunity to bring my family or friends together, to spend time celebrating and enjoying our food and to acknowledge the work and care that have gone into creating it. It feels right to honour that work by serving and presenting food beautifully.
When I’m planning a gathering I’ll almost always start with where I’m going to sit everyone. I usually seat people at long tables rather than round ones. It’s just something I’ve always done because somehow it feels more intimate to me. Inevitably as people talk across the table and the group conversations start, the chatter and noise levels rise and you’ve created a lively atmosphere. Depending on the occasion, I will often make a seating plan so that I can mix people up and introduce guests with similar interests who might not otherwise meet each other. I’ll keep name placements very simple, just small white cards with the handwritten names.
My inspiration and ideas for the table setting itself come from different sources. I will always begin by looking to nature and the flowers that are growing in my garden, and from there I’ll start to plan the colours and the theme for the table. I generally keep flowers to a single colour, alongside foliage and other greenery, such as pots of herbs, and then add accents of other colours through the glassware or the linens and tablecloth. My favourite tablecloth at the moment is one of our hand-blocked prints from India. I won’t use anything too heavily scented for the flowers and I try to let them be an embellishment rather than a distraction, so I will keep vases or the old glasses I often use to display them at a low height, so that nothing will ever be tall enough to block anybody’s sight.
I also really like to decorate a table using other nods to a theme or my surroundings, so for an autumnal party there might be vegetables, such as pumpkins and different sizes and varieties of squash, or for a table setting when we’re on holiday, staying near the sea, I’ll use lots of shells and pebbles..."
