No Crime in Breaking the Set : Set Your Own Rules on Mixing, Matching Dish Styles

Don’t throw away those floral-pattern dishes your Aunt Emily gave you, even if your taste runs to hard-edged contemporary design. The latest, best way to create a place setting is to mix and match looks: antique with contemporary, ethnic with classic, country with city.

The rule in dish decor today is: There is no rule. If it is pleasing to your eye, do it.

“Sometimes you inherit china patterns from different sides of your family that don’t seem to go together at first glance. But by adding some good basic pieces like dinner and salad plates, you can usually blend in your other dishes,” explains Electa Anderson, director of special events and community relations at Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar.

Anderson herself put together a place setting by starting with the contemporary Spode dinner plate she received for a wedding gift and adding a Limoges salad plate from her grandmother, a Bavarian china bowl from her aunt and a small Limoges plate she purchased in an antique shop.

“All the time I mix the old with the new. It makes the table more interesting. I also like to use different crystal patterns and even different flatware patterns.

“For example, I have some salad forks I bought in an antique store that don’t really go with anything, but I always use them. The same thing goes for my bone-handled knives.”

The big secret to combining dishes is to coordinate colors, say a number of those experienced with mixing and matching.

Sheila Chefetz, author of “Antiques for the Table” (Viking Studio Books, $30) says, “I personally think that coordinating color on the table is the best way to do it.

“But some people don’t match anything and don’t care to have that common thread of color. Instead they want each plate on the table to be individual and special.” In a case like this, perhaps the centerpiece or the table linens could help pull the whole thing together.

For a dinner party for 12 that Chefetz recently gave, she didn’t have 12 of everything so she improvised. “I began with a gold and bone service plate or charger that remained on the table until dessert. For the cold soup, I used green and gold bowls. When they were removed, I placed burgundy and gold dinner plates on top of the charger, followed by the salad plates. Six of them were gold, white and green; six were gold, white and monogrammed. The ladies got the green plates, the men the monograms. The bread and butter plates that remained on the table were gold and white and didn’t match the other dishes.”

The dinner concluded with dessert served on flowered plates: six were from her mother, six were gifts from a friend.

Since Chefetz only had 10 cranberry-colored water goblets, she and her husband had plain crystal ones. She coordinated this by having the guests use ivory napkins, while she and she husband had wine-colored ones.

Even though thoughts of a sit-down dinner for 12 may be the furthest thing from your mind, the same principles apply for smaller dinner parties and family meals.

When initially buying china, it is a good idea to buy two compatibly colored patterns, one for daytime and one for formal entertaining. That way, from the beginning, pieces can be mixed and matched. If some interesting mismatched dishes appeal to you when you’re traveling or bargain hunting at thrift stores, buy them and intermingle them. They’ll be constant reminders of your trip and add personality to the table.

If you’re a first-time fine china buyer, it isn’t always the best idea to buy all white china as dinner plates.

Whites are often the hardest colors to coordinate; classic white looks odd combined with creamy earthenware white. Instead, select a plate with colors that can be picked up in the other dishes.

Just as color is an important consideration in mixing and matching dishes, so is the weight and texture of the dish. The four different kinds of china are: earthenware, stoneware, fine china and bone china.

Earthenware is a form of pottery formed from clay without the addition of glass-like material. The surface is porous unless glazed.

Stoneware is made of clay to which a stone like sand is added. This addition allows it to be fired at a higher temperature and makes it stronger than earthenware, although it is still heavy and opaque.

Fine china is the most glass-like and is made of a combination of fine white clay, feldspar and flint. These ingredients, fired at very high temperature, create a hard, non-porous ceramic. It is thinner and lighter than the earthenware and stoneware and can be formed into delicate shapes. If you hold it to the light, you can see its translucence.

Bone china is a form of fine china to which bone ash has been added, creating a bright white color.

Some people argue that potteries and fine china cannot be mixed successfully on the table.

“English ironstone and pottery do not mix with French faience or Italian ceramic,” says John Loring, design director of Tiffany and Co. “The soft, sensual surfaces of the faience clash with the hard ceramics.” In the same way, he says, English bone china does not mix well with European porcelains, such as some of the French Limoges wares.

There are those who disagree, but the mixture of such opposite textures and colors does have to be put together carefully and very creatively. If done well, the results can be spectacular.

A case in point was a table set at Neiman Marcus in Newport Beach. The charger plate was a gold ceramic Italian design, while the dinner plate and the salad plate in the Jaguar Jungle pattern were Chase china. A colorful glass fruit bowl was by MacKenzie and Childs. The napkin rings were metal, while two crystal glasses were by Baccarat and one was from St. Louis crystal. Sterling silver flatware by Christofle blended with tin and glass lanterns that acted as candlesticks.

Another breaking of the “china and pottery don’t mix” rule at Neiman Marcus was a table set with MacKenzie and Childs Ltd. handmade majolica ware. The soft colors and clever whimsy of their pottery can be mixed with pieces of fine china.

In fact, here is one company that encourages people to have fun and create different looks for the table. Another a place setting featured a large gold charger plate topped with a blue and yellow MacKenzie and Childs dinner plate. The addition of a gold-rimmed glass dish by Annieware or a floral Limoges salad plate added an extra dimension to the setting. The glasses were of a variety of patterns. Overall, a truly contemporary look was combined with a traditional one.

“The nice thing about today is that there is no one style,” Anderson says. “It’s all a preference for what you like and want to be surrounded by.”

Creativity Is Centerpiece of Well-Set Dining Table

The dining-room table--whether it’s in a designated dining room or is a makeshift one set up temporarily in the living room--is a good place to show off your creativity.

As with place settings, the mix-it-up philosophy can be applied to the whole table.

If you like to collect things, show them off on the table. A collection of bells of various shapes and sizes positioned down the center of the table can be a conversation opener.

Table linens in different colors, patterns and weaves can add visual interest; so can varied napkin rings, serving dishes, place card holders and candles. Other touches might include decorative bowls, fruits and nuts, glass animals or paper cutouts.

You might try wicker place mats or even gold paper doilies over lace. If you have a big-leafed tree in the yard, consider using its leaves for place mats.

Experiment to find the combination that creates the mood you want to set.

Centerpieces should be kept low so guests don’t have to look around them to talk. Fresh flowers are the obvious choice, but they don’t have to be in one arrangement. Instead, try using many small vases in different sizes, shapes and colors and cluster them or put them down the center of the table. Or place a small plant at each plate that can be taken home by guests or planted later in your own garden.