Beautiful Shabbos Tables By Rivka Slatkin Of www.jewishlifeorganized.com

About Rivka Slatkin, “Jewish Life Organizer” Rivka Slatkin, “Jewish Life Organizer”, helps new Jewish families get organized to make Shabbos and Yom Tov simple and beautiful, decreasing the stress and overwhelm that often is prevalent. She made it her mission to teach others what she worked so hard to learn on her own, years ago, not having anyone teaching her successful homemaking methods. Rivka does not want others to feel alone or “inadequate” the way she did, when going about her learning curve.

She offers tutorials, reports, teleclasses, articles, workshops, and personal consulting that help people just like you learn step-by-step methods that GETS RESULTS for their homes. You can learn more about these terrific resources at http://www.jewishlifeorganized.com. For FREE tips and to be notified of upcoming teleclasses and workshops with The Jewish Life Organizer, sign up for Rivka’s monthly e-zine Jewish Holiday Reminder Service at www.jewishlifeorganized.com. She's appeared as a guest speaker for various Jewish organizations, has been interviewed by The Baltimore Jewish Times and has been featured in dozens of online and print publications. Rivka’s articles on Jewish life organizing, specific holiday planning tips, and managing your time are published regularly in Jewish magazines and newspapers and in hundreds of organizing sites on the Web.

I. Section One A. Choose an inspirational object You don’t have to have a lot of money or spend a lot to make your Shabbos table look gorgeous. Work with what you have. The secret is to accentuate what you have and bring out the possibilities you did not even knew existed. Let’s start with what you already own. A decorator always builds his/her room from an inspirational object; a rug, a piece of art. Let’s find our own inspirational piece to create our Shabbos Table masterpiece. Look around your house and find at least 1 object you love. It doesn’t matter how big or small it is, we just want to understand more about why you love it. We need inspiration to build from and we don’t want to make mistake purchases. Begin by understanding why you were initially attracted to these pieces. Did you love the:

• Price?

• Color?

• Look and style?

• Finish and shine?

• Newness or oldness?

• Family history and sentiment around it? The reason I ask. “Why?” is that understanding your style is the first step to ascertaining what you love to be surrounded with. When I go into a home to decorate it, lots of times I hear the homeowner saying, “I don’t know what I like. I don’t really have any preferences.” I don’t take that at face value. I work hard to get to the bottom of what they are saying. Sometimes I have to actually bring home a rug or a picture so I can really get a feel for if they love the piece or hate it. After I bring a few pieces into the home, the homeowners begin to warm up to the questions. “I don’t really like that shag rug, it looks so outdated. That combination of blue and brown looks like my grandmother’s house did in the 80s.” Or, I’ll walk around the home and ask, “What do you love in your home? Your dishes, your antique chest?” Sometimes I get a straight answer and sometimes I do not. If you currently feel that you do not really know what you love, take this decorating quiz offered to you by House Beautiful. It is really easy and will guide us towards the decorating era that you click with best. If you already have spent some time decorating or are interested in it, take the next decorating quiz to test your decorating IQ.

After we figure out your decorating style, then we can go through your house and work with what fits, collect other pieces to finish the look, and finally, set up your Shabbos table.

B. Choose a Decorating Style I hope by now you have a sense of what decorating styles are out there. A very basic list of styles which stem from culture and time period are:

• Formal

• Contemporary

• Casual

• Traditional Read over the following information, and notice which picture pulls you in.

Formal

For an Elegant and Luxurious Interior

If you love the look of elegant Ritz-Carlton hotels or public buildings such as the White House, you're probably drawn to their formal style of decorating.

In a formal style interior, a central focal point draws the eye. Objects are also more ornate and gilded.

If your table setting taste is formal, give your dining room that formal look as well with highly polished woods, glistening mirrors, luxurious and sensual fabrics, sparkling crystal chandeliers and wall sconces, carved mirrorsoriental rugs, highly polished brasshardware, gold-leafed accessories, tassels and fringe, oil paintings, dramatic draperies with valances, leather and porcelain accessories, and antique furniture.

A dining room is the perfect place to introduce a formal look. Choose from a wide range of elegant and beautiful china, crystal, and silver. A simple gold-banded dinner plate set atop elegant linens with sparkling silver flatware and beautiful cut crystal stemware creates a perfect formal setting for dining.

Having a formal dining room as the backdrop for your formal table is the best way to extend your look.

Contemporary

Be Right Up to Date

Current, modern, of today, right now. If that sounds like you, then you might like a contemporary style of decorating.

Fundamentally, simplicity, subtle sophistication, texture and clean lines help to define contemporary decorating on the table.

Neutrals, black, and white are the main colors in contemporary interiors. So for your dining room, if the walls are painted in a

basic neutral, you have a wonderful backdrop for bold colored accessories. If a wall is a bright, bold color, neutrals should be used everywhere else.

In contemporary interiors, less is more. Each piece stands out as individual and unique.

Smooth, clean, geometric shapes in black, white, or other neutral tones for the tableware will give you the contemporary look you want. Cover the table in a neutral, black, or bold fabric. A tablecloth in a natural look (wool, cotton, linen, silk, jute) adds textural appeal.

Contemporary pieces are simple and uncluttered, without curves or carved details. That means exposed legs, no skirt, trim, fringe, or tassels.

You can always add a splash of color in one or two pieces or in the carpet on your floor.

Set your table with natural materials like metal, stone, and opaque or clear glass. There are a number of geometric shapes, bold colors, and interesting styles available. Bring in texture with silverware, napkins, placemats and centerpieces. The texture of the tablecloth and linens will soften and warm up the space.

Don't clutter the room with collections or too many pieces. Open space is just as, if not more, important as the pieces you put in the space.

Casual

The Focus is on Comfort

Do you long for a casual style room that is homey, warm, comfortable, and inviting? Who doesn't want to be comfortable in their

own home? If you want to set a casual style dining room table, give your dining room that same casual look.

Avoid perfect symmetry. Details are simple, and elements are rectangular or softly curved and have a touch of whimsical.

Use an old or reconstructed birdhouse or wooden candlestick for a centerpiece, stack pieces of old luggage for a side table.

For special accents on the table, add ruffles, pleats, buttons, ribbon, or cording. Contrasting colored details incorporate the full range of colors in the room.

In the dining room, pieces are often long, large, and horizontal, rather than vertical and tall and petite. Tables are chunky and of a large scale, which gives a comfortable feeling, while providing space for storage and spreading out. This helps to create a restful look.

A dining room decorated in a casual style is the perfect place for found items of wicker, iron, and rattan, or flea market finds. Old antiques fit in well.

Light woods are often used for furniture pieces and wood flooring. Oak and pine are the most popular, either painted or finished with a flat, low luster varnish to protect the grain. Hammered iron, antiqued brass, wrough iron, porcelain, or carved wood are used for the hardware on doors and drawers. Collections of treasured or found items are often arranged to add the casual look. The shelf of a bookcase or corner tabletop is the perfect place for an arrangement of treasures. Windowcoverings are simple (not dressy) with a touch of whimsical. Add a simple swag of fabric or fabric tie-backs if you must. Rooms decorated in a casual style have light fixtures made of wrought iron, tin, pewter, or wood. Simple chandeliers look old in wrought iron or antiqued metals. Or electrify a hanging pan rack or hang a rack of antlers.

The dining table of a room decorated in a casual style would be set with rugged stoneware, textured woven or fabric placemats, coordinated napkins, heavy glasses, stainless flatware, wooden bowls, and accessories of iron or pewter. The colors of the table should enhance the theme of the room, using either bold floral patterns, plain pieces, or soft, comfortable pastels.

Keep in mind that a room decorated in a causal style should be:

• comfortable, homey, welcoming, and sturdy. • Fabrics should be soft and textured. • Furniture is long, overstuffed, and low. • Surfaces worn and rugged. • Accessories are old and rustic. • A touch of whimsy is in order.

Traditional

Traditional style interiors are comforting and classic. You may have grown up in a home that was decorated with traditional style furnishings.

There is nothing wild or chaotic in a traditional room. It is calm, orderly, and can be somewhat predictable.

Furnishings might look a bit outdated to some, while others will enjoy an interior that embraces the benefits of classic styling.

Symmetry is very important in traditional decorating.

The dining room in a traditional home is generally a separate room, often with some built-in corner cabinets for china storage. A large area rug sits on top of a hardwood floor. The table is rectangular with a set of matched chairs placed evenly around the perimeter. A matching sideboard, buffet, or china cabinet is centered on one wall. Traditional dining rooms can show off a variety of china, glassware, and silver. Plates might be a classic gold-rimmed style or a simple floral design. Use either beautiful tablecloths or pretty fabric placemats and napkins.

Whew! Congratulations on reading through all the material above. Consider yourself a graduate of Decorating Styles University. Now that you are familiar with decorating styles, you can actually label the pieces in your home that you love according to a decorating style. You won’t make new purchase mistakes because you know what your decorating preferences are. Do you love your ornate, crystal glasses with the gold rims? After reading the Formal section, could you attribute your love of your crystal glasses with a leaning towards Formal style decorating? What other pieces in your home do you love? Choose one or two, understand what decorating style it is, and then we can start finding more pieces in that style. Homework Assignment: 1. Find an object in your home you love; a vase, crystal china, a mug, a piece of furniture, anything. Name it. _______________________________________________________ 2. What do you love about it (i.e., colors, shape, texture)? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. Which decorating style category do you think it falls under: formal, casual, contemporary, or traditional? ________________________________________________________________

C. Choose a Color Do you have preferences about how a Shabbos table should be set? It would be important to take those into consideration if you do. For instance, my husband insists on using a white tablecloth for Shabbos. Not cream, not gold, white. So I work around it, after all white is neutral so anything can work with it. Combine your preferences with the decorating style you gravitate towards. Put that together and you know half of what you need for a gorgeous Shabbos table. What’s the other half? COLOR! My favorite. Why is it so important? You already have serving pieces and china, you can’t change the colors of what you use? It is worth your effort to find out what colors you really love deep down inside. You’ll notice a shift in your life if you are surrounded by (at least some!) things that reflect your true color personality. I know a woman whose husband insisted on having everything be brown in the house. He only wanted brown furniture and accessories. She hated it, resented it, and I won’t tell you the rest of the dirty details because they are just too negative. Let’s find out what colors you love so your Shabbos table never is thrown together haphazardly. We’ll highlight your favorite colors by adding a few accessories and by gathering up what you already have and grouping them it new ways. Take this color quiz to find out what colors work best with your personality and your preferences. Trust me, it makes all the difference. *********************************************************************** If you’ve never had your personal colors done, I recommend it highly. Not only is it a fabulous organizing tool- you’ll know what clothes work best on you and your closet will no longer be cluttered up with unflattering clothes-but you will look better. You know when you are wearing a certain item from your closet and you get so many compliments about it? That means you are on the right track color wise. I recommend this particular website to look at getting your colors done. There is a free color tool, click here to check it out. ************************************************************************

Did you come up with at least 2 colors that you love from the quiz? Great. If not, go back and take the quiz. Another way of choosing gorgeous colors is to look frequently at home decorating magazines. I love House beautiful, Oprah at Home, and Better Homes and Gardens. I recently noticed that no matter what issue magazine I am looking at, the pictures I tend to really love all have a similar color scheme or hue in them. That’s because each of us naturally gravitate towards certain colors. Begin to notice what colors seem to pull you. Write them down so we can later create a beautiful Shabbos table color scheme. The Colors and Suggestions I got from the Color Quiz: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ “What about the rest of the family”, you may ask? After all, you are only one person, perhaps the one in charge of setting the Shabbos table. Are others going to hate your personal color preferences? Are they going to start feeling resentful and hating your choice? The answer is No. We are not going to be making drastic changes in how you currently do things. Only spicing them up a bit, adding excitement and anticipation to your regular Shabbos preparations. Plus, the colors will change a bit if you like from week to week or month to month. Nothing is set in stone. It will be easy to change color schemes whenever you or a family member so desires. One last comment- “If Momma ain’t happy, no one will be happy.” I find this to be a true statement. If you are the one in charge of the Shabbos preparations, YOU are the one that needs to feel happy with regards to doing so, not resentful or negative. So if you are happy, your positive feelings will extend to everyone else sitting at your beautiful table, permeating the energy and making it a pleasant atmosphere. With that kind of atmosphere, no one notices a subtle color choice! Attractive Color Combinations You may have selected at least 2 favorite colors, or perhaps you love all colors and couldn’t narrow your choices down! What I’ve done for you is provide you with attractive color combinations. Most color combinations will start with 2 colors

and sometimes a 3rd or 4th color will just seem to make sense with what you already own in terms of dinnerware or servingware. Nevertheless, I want you to have a list of great color combinations you can reference anytime.

1. Pale Blue and a Neutral Soft, pale blues offer a soothing look for any

room. It’s a color that works well with white, cream, tan, black, and brown, as well as sparkling accents of silver, glass, and white ironstone.

2. Pink and Chocolate Brown 3. Tan and Black

Neutral tans (anything from barely-there taupe to a deep golden beige) gain added punch as a background for trendy black furnishings. Lighten things up with creamy ivory trim and lots of gleaming accents in ivory, silver or gold.

4. Golden Yellow and White A few darker accents in aged bronze, dark wood, or even a bit of black add a note of elegance.

5. Pale Sage Green and Walnut 6. Navy Blue and White

Classically nautical, blue and white schemes can work with nearly any theme or style of furniture. Try the color pair with red on a porch, with zesty orange in a contemporary living room, with yellow in a kitchen, or with soft green in a bedroom.

7. Wild Brights Punch up your interiors with shots of summer color: kiwi green, ocean aqua, hot pink, and fresh-squeezed orange.

8. Pale Tan and Any Pastel Start with your favorite pastel (light pink, peach, butter, blue, or green) and

accent with doses of light camel tan and whites. This scheme can be a good compromise when she wants color and he wants neutrals.

9. Golden Yellow and Red 10. Tone-on-Tone

Any color is elevated to new radiance when done in a tone-on-tone scheme. It could be wall stripes in identical colors but in 2 paint finishes (matte vs. satin), or a fabric or wallpaper that shows off a damask pattern over a similarly-colored background. The effect is soothing, elegant, and versatile. (About Interior Decorating)

11. Aqua and Red

12. Ivory and Mocha 13. fuchia and orange 14. Blue and brown 15. black and fuchia 16. lime green and hot pink 17. Pink with celadon green 18. Soft sage or celadon green with

deep or pale yellow, coral for extra zip

19. Soft Lavender with darker purple or magenta, to really pop

20. Platinum with almost any shade of lavender or purple 21. Robin's egg blue with a cheerful yellow or cream 22. Shades of orange with blue (my favorite) 23. Brown, red, green and pink 24. Brown and White

How are these great color combinations thought of so I can come up with my own? The way great color combinations are put together is through the use of the color wheel. The color wheel generally shows the pure hues of colors: red, blue, and green. In decorating, however, you're more likely to be using tints (lighter values) and tones (also known as shades) that are darker values of a color. For example, you may not use an intense green in a room; you're more likely to go with a soft sage or a deep hunter green instead.

For those of us who haven’t graduated from design school, the task of getting everything coordinated can seem a bit daunting. What colors should be chosen? How can these

colors be used for the best effect? For reference purposes, a simple color wheel goes from yellow to orange to red to violet to blue to green to yellow, with other hues in between. Below is a quick list of color schemes used by designers that will help you achieve visual balance in your decorations.

Monochromatic: One base color is used throughout, but there are several different hues and tones present. For instance, you may choose blue as your color. The table can vary in color from navy to periwinkle to powder blue and have a stunning visual effect through this color scheme.

Adjacent: Two or three colors are chosen that are adjacent to the color wheel. An example of this is to have yellow, yellow-green and green tones throughout the table.

Triadic: Three colors are used, that are equidistant from each other on the color wheel. For instance, you may choose yellow, blue and red for your colors.

Complementary: This scheme is very popular. Two colors are chosen that are opposite on the color wheel. Two examples are using red and green or using violet and yellow. (Worqx.com)

Tips for using the Color Wheel:

• You’ll want to choose a dominant color for your table that is present in most of the table. The other colors you choose should be accents.

• The color wheel also helps you identify warm and cool hues.

• Half of the color wheel, from red to yellow-green, is considered warm, stimulating, and advancing. Such a description reflects emotional associations (the sun looks yellow, and fire is orange and red, for example), but it has a basis in physiology: The eye can't bring the red and purple ends of the spectrum into focus at the same time, so it perceives red to be nearer or advancing.

• The other half of the wheel is described as cool; these colors generally appear to recede. Thus a small room may benefit from visually opening up the walls with a cool, or receding, paint color such as blue, green, or purple.

• TIP: A warm color scheme needs a dollop of a cool hue to feel well-rounded and complete; think of a green plant in a yellow room.

• TIP: A cool scheme needs a jolt of warmth to liven it up; thus a shot of red will perk up a room done in blue and white.

• Green and purple may seem to either advance or recede, depending on the context; for that reason, some interior designers consider them neutrals that can go with any color.

Color Mood Chart

� Pink: soothes, acquiesces; promotes affability and affection. � Yellow: expands, cheers; increases energy. � White: purifies, energizes, unifies; in combination, enlivens all other colors. � Black: disciplines, authorizes, strengthens; encourages independence. � Orange: cheers, commands; stimulates appetites, conversation, and charity. � Red: empowers, stimulates, dramatizes, competes; symbolizes passion. � Green: balances, normalizes, refreshes; encourages emotional growth. � Purple: comforts, spiritualizes; creates mystery and draws out intuition. � Blue: relaxes, refreshes, cools; produces tranquil feelings and peaceful moods. You’ve chosen colors, decorating styles, and inspirational objects. You know how to create an attractive color combination, what moods colors can create and about the color wheel. Congratulations! You are finished with Section One- Choosing. Let’s move on to Section Two- Collecting.

II. Section Two A. Collect and Categorize Can you guess what the next step is? That’s right. You need to go around your home and categorize your pieces according to color. The easiest way to do this is first, to make sure you have enough room to store all of your pieces. You probably have a china hutch or dining room server/buffet that you use now. You may find that when you take everything out and sort according to color, there is no more room! Create an “entertaining closet” out of a closet in your home that gets minimal use (yeah right) or by setting up a small storage area in your office or basement that holds Shabbos table overflow. Say you have those cute little wine necklaces or extra benchers, colored glasses and chargers, colored napkins and other tablecloths. If you are familiar with my organizing advice both on Cluborganized.com and Jewishlifeorganized.com, you’ll know that I ALWAYS recommend using walls for storage. Not necessarily creating built ins, but maximizing storage by hanging shelves or cabinets on the wall instead of finding extra floor space around for yet another piece of furniture. Find a way to contain the overflow from entertaining and make it a pleasant work space.

The SPACE Formula But before you run out and by storage cabinets, we FIRST must Sort. Do you know Julie Morgenstern’s SPACE formula when tackling any organizing job? S-Sort P-Purge A-Assign a Home C-Containerize E-Equalize Unfortuately, finding great containers is only the 4th step in the formula. That’s because, you wouldn’t want to go buy storage before you even know how much you have to store! I love it that the first step, the one we are up to now, is Sorting. I love it because it’s a no brainer. You don’t have to think- “Well, should I keep this? Do I use it? What should I do with it?” All you have to do is sort according to like items. Take everything out of your dining room hutch and server, wherever you have Shabbos table dishes and serving pieces. Work with a blank slate. Sort all of your white linens together, all of your white dishes, all of your patterned china, and work according to color. All of your servingware that is the same color, put in a group now in your “staging” area (whatever flat surface you are sorting everything on). Are you done? Is everything sorted according to color? Good. Feeling overwhelmed? Don’t. We are almost there. If there is anything that is broken, cracked, chipped and you haven’t repaired it in years, purge it. Donate it. Remember, we are aiming to create a spectacular Shabbos table, not a hodgepodge (unless you like country casual style!). Once you’ve chosen your best pieces, it is time now to Assign a Home. Decide where everything will go. If you are lucky and have a closet solely devoted to entertaining, I recommend you put items back according to color or color scheme. That means, all of your white dishes go on one shelf and perhaps if you like contemporary decorating styles, you also place your chocolate brown dishes on the same shelf, signaling what your favorite color scheme is. If you decide to put items back according to a color scheme, what if you wish to change color schemes around so the white dishes would go with the black ones too? That leads us to the next section, which is Coordinate.

III. Section Three A. Coordinate I recommend you make a list of color combinations and the pieces that go along with them. In my own palm pilot, I have a list that looks like this: 4 color combination Brown, White, Green, Silver -silver bowl from sue -brown everyday fleshig dishes -chrome pedestal bowl -white china teapot -silver coaster -brown everyday flesishig mugs -green salad bowl 3 color combination Blue, Gold/Amber, and Red Blue Shabbos China Amber color glasses Blue Kiddush cups Amber Chargers Amber Water Pitcher Red Mayim Acharonim Red cake stand Keep your own list, perhaps taped to the inside of your entertaining closet. So, even though the white dishes may be next to the brown ones, when you look at your list, you will know what other color combinations the white dishes can go with. Here’s a handy chart for you do to this.

Shabbos Table Color Combinations

1. _________ + _________+ __________ Pieces that fit into the collection: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. _________ + _________+ __________ Pieces that fit into the collection: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. _________ + _________+ __________ Pieces that fit into the collection: __________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________ Make notes on your list if there is a particular color combination you loved or if you purchased a new piece. Keep it updated. Back to the SPACE formula, we’ve actually covered the last 2 steps. Containerize is finding the right container for you items. As far as entertaining goes, you may have a silverware chest or caddy, that would be a container, or the plastic dish protector covers you’ve seen to protect your dishes. Label everything clearly so you can follow the next step, Equalize. Equalize means maintaining, and with your checklist above, I know you will have no problem maintaining order in your entertaining closet because of the excitement of regularly rotating your pieces. You may decide to shop around to add to your collection. Before you add pieces, do make sure you’ve explored your entire house from top to bottom so you do not buy pieces you do not need or may already have. When I buy something new, I try to donate the same number of items bought. So if you bought 2 new skirts, try to weed out 2 items from your closet to prevent excessive clutter. Do the same with entertaining pieces. Make copies of your Shabbos table color combinations list and keep it in your purse at all times. Or get it on your Palm Pilot. So when you are out shopping and you see a great piece and wonder if it would “go” in your collection, you will know the answer.

IV. Section Four A. Specific Shabbos Table Suggestions If you have been wishing that I would go through the specifics of setting your Shabbos table and provide you with suggestions, now is the time! Let’s take the Shabbos table apart, piece by piece, and talk about how you can give it a pop! Dining Room Chairs You probably already have a set of dining room chairs. You can give them a facelift by reupholstering them yourselves. It is not too hard to do that, do a search for instructions on google. Or, you can buy inexpensive dining room chair covers special for Shabbos. Or, combine looks. Keep two upholstered head chairs, and throw chair covers over the other chairs. This is great especially if you have young children.

For a very fancy dinner, tie a bow around the back of each chair with an extra piece of fabric or with a gauzy type of material. This is nice for a Sheva Brachos.

If you have ladder back chairs chairs with room to place tie back cushions, find some with a great pattern. You can always take them off to change looks around and it would be great if you found patterns that go with your favorite color combination. Tablecloths

I mentioned before that my husband request that we stick with a white tablecloth only for Shabbos. You may or may not feel the same way. If you are using only a white tablecloth, that is perfectly fine and special for Shabbos. You can dress up the white tablecloth with an overlay, a sheer type of material that is also white or cream. This

adds texture and depth to the table, without tampering with your family’s preference for a white Shabbos tablecloth.

You can also place a table runner on the top of your white tablecloth going horizontally or vertically on the table.

Place Settings Now that you are decided on your tablecloth “look”, let’s go over your actual place setting. I’m talking about the china, the glasses, and silverware. My first question to you is: Do you currently love your china? If you don’t particularly like your china pattern, I am not going to tell you to replace the set. Replacing your china pattern can certainly be expensive and may not be an appropriate goal for you.

Good news! You can update your china pattern and detract from the aspects of the pattern that you do not care for. What colors are in your pattern? White with a gold rim? Is there any black? Find a complimentary color that is in your pattern currently. It does not have to be a very bright color or an obvious color. Just find it. Got that second color? If not, go back to the color wheel and list of sample color schemes to pick out a secondary color.

Once you have your secondary color, look around your home to see if you have any china dishes of that color. If not, go find a few dessert dishes or fish plates that are of the second color. Here is an example. Look at how the red heart shaped plate was pulled out of the original dinner plate colors. Red is not even the main color of that dinner plate but it was pulled out and emphasized, detracting from the old china pattern. Once you have your second color, continue to optimize it by adding a couple of other pieces. How about drinking glasses? If you already use a set of clear

glasses, add a colored wine glass for kiddush or lechayims. Add colored napkins, and purchase flowers for your table that bring out that secondary color. You won’t even recognize your old pattern anymore!

I recently bought a cake tray and mayim acharonim (tea for one) to compliment my blue and gold patterned china. I pulled out the gold rim from my china and picked an amber color as my secondary color. I threw red in there. Here is a picture of my china- blue and gold. How did

I get the red in there? I started accenting the gold and decided I wanted a third color.

I am really happy with my Gold, Blue, and Red setup. I’ve added amber glasses and fish plates, blue kiddush cups from the dollar store and a couple of red pieces, shown to you in the pictures. We are really happy with the results. Centerpieces The last step and perhaps the most important is the centerpiece. The centerpiece ties everything together. It does not have to be elaborate.

Sometimes I purchase flowers that compliment my color scheme, other times I bring dessert out on a tiered cake stand. The purpose of a centerpiece is to provide the eye with a focal point to “rest” on. You will know when you go into a room and your eye has no place to rest. Similarly, with a table setting, if everything is flat against the tablecloth, there is really nowhere for your eye to rest. The eye travels from plate to plate and has nowhere to stop. Add something simple, a vase with flowers. Your husband may already bring you flowers home for Shabbos. Tell him what colors you like. Or a nice tall water pitcher. Or put your tall candlesticks on the table. Anything to bring your eye upwards. Napkins I’ve had a hard time finding napkins that are easy to wash with no ironing. If you find some, please let me know where you did!

Cloth napkins are always nice. Go with a dark color to hide stains and use a color that can go with almost any color scheme you pick.

For napkin rings, keep a variety of styles if you like, or just tie up napkins with a ribbon or piece of raffia or use a jewelry pin. For napkin folding ideas, go to http://www.table-settings-with-pictures.com/napkin-folding.html. *******************************************************************

I hope you’ve enjoyed the Shabbos Table course as much as I did writing it. I would love to hear what inspired you from this course and what you implemented into your Shabbos table. Send me a picture or let me know what I can do to further assist you in your Beautifying project! Good Shabbos!

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