Festive Tablescaping Tips from LAY London

Ahead of the festive season (and all those Christmas tables you will no doubt be styling in your own homes), we caught up with Alice Herbert, co-founder of LAY London, a joyful platform for event and tablescape styling. Sisters and co-founders, Alice and Jemima draw upon a mutual love of bold colour palettes, elegant textiles and decadent furnishings to curate bespoke tablescapes with a sense of fun. They also offer a curated collection of tabletop treasures crafted by artisans around the world, including patterned table linens, colourful candles and beautifully designed cutlery.

Flowers, branches or foliage will always bring the table to life. By using the colours of the tableware as a guide for the flowers you select (or vice versa), a scheme will start to form. At Christmas, for example, you might opt for a ‘candy cane’ red and white striped tablecloth, paired with ruby red carnations and snow white ranunculi. It’s worth remembering that smaller bud vases will make florals go further on the table than one or two larger arrangements.

A quick cheat to add colour to the table is by placing bowls of fruit and whole nuts on the table, like pomegranates, clementines and even grapes, for pops of fragrant brightness. Scatterings of pine cones painted in metallic gold look very effective around the table too, and can also double as festive place card holders.

A flickering of candles on the table is a simple and effective way to bring a sense of occasion to the moment whilst creating a warming, cosy atmosphere. Tall, glowing dinner candles will add a party mood. More is more, so try to have at least half a dozen tall candles on the table, paired with votives for lower-light.

We try to be conscious of using plastic-free or multiple-use decorations on the table. Reusable fabric crackers look elegant on the table and can be found in many colourways. It’s fun to fill these with your own choice of prizes which can be upgraded from the norm (the jokes too!)

Like the idea of reusable crackers? Take a peek at our luxury knitted crackers, new this Christmas!

Lastly, never underestimate the excitement of leaving little keepsakes for guests on the table. As it’s the festive season, you might add velvet bow napkin ties or hand tied bags of stripy humbugs. We love finding baubles in a quirky or personal design for each guest and tying them with a velvet ribbon and name tag at each place. No matter how small, guests will feel gleeful at their surprise, festive token.