Sunny side up

LONG after the last chocolate Easter bunny and Marshmallow Peep have been devoured, there are some treats that still deserve a place at the table. From everyday china like Pottery Barn’s small stoneware bowls ($25 for four, as pictured on Page 1) to fine designer porcelain, this spring’s serving suggestion is dishes in candy colors.

Couturier Christian Lacroix started the fashion, creating exclusive china collections for Christofle in vibrant swirls of colors with gold trim as well as demitasse sets with a coordinating rainbow of enameled teaspoons as fanciful as a Faberge egg. Versace’s tabletop collection for Rosenthal, including Greek key-banded napkin rings in pink and blue, is equally opulent.

Major retailers have adopted the look, offering plates and platters in suddenly chic chick-yellow and robin’s egg blue. Pastel purples, pinks and greens are also brightening the kitchen and dining room, lending the appearance of unfussy elegance whether matched or mixed.

Equally suitable for casual meals or formal dining, this colorful new tableware is not limited by season, style or material. At Crate & Barrel, Italian glass dishes strike a luminous modernist chord in turquoise and a luster-finished lilac, while Provencal-style plates with piecrust edges and patterned rims are weighty enough for a bachelor, even when tarted up in tangerine and key lime.

For the most part, however, these pretty place settings are an expression of old-fashioned femininity. Still enchanted by tea sets? Anthropologie’s latte bowls and saucers exude a Parisian apartment vibe, and Villeroy & Boch’s floral prints are part English garden party, part Pop Art.