Suggestions on how to update Spode

14 years ago

I have received 12 settings of traditional spode china, as well as a few platters and small pieces such as a teapot. We are a young family who likes traditional spaces with an updated flare. Any suggestions for updated color palattes to use with Spode? Thank you in advance!

Featured Answer

nasmijati

14 years ago

My Spode is Gainsborough, from the 1930s. Cream with colored botanical print spring flowers.

Instead of the expected white or cream tablecloth, I use the darkest purple from one of the flowers in the design. Different color napkins at each place setting, coordinating with colors in the dish pattern.
For a company meal with members of the family who remember the dishes and expect a bouquet, take a plate, or print the design from the website, and take it to a florist. (Do not leave the plate with the florist.) Ask for a flower arrangement that is "high style." You will be amazed at what the florist can design for you. Definitely an update from anything traditional!

For a special family meal, set the table with solid color paper plates/bowls that coordinate with a color in your Spode for all children age eight and under. For children nine to fifteen, consider museum putty/wax under the plates on the bare table to keep them from sliding. Buy colorful clear plastic drinking vessels in coordinating and/or complimentary colors for everyone to ease any stress about too many fragile pieces on the table. Clear plastic lets the young ones see how much liquid is in the vessel. (Keep a pile of cloths under your chair for inevitable spills - you can mop them up quickly.)

Before a big family gathering or a special meal, it is fun to practice with the children by serving peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, or another favorite meal, with the table set just as you will have it for "the big day." It is a good idea to put cushions on all of the children's chairs so they are comfortable. Special meals are usually longer lasting than a regular family dinner.

I know I have gone way beyond your dilemma of updated color palettes for Spode. My suggestions come from experience with multigenerational holiday meals three times a year. One learns what to do to keep the china intact, the youngsters happy, and how to set a table with the good dishes differently three times every year, without repeats from year to year. Advance planning, but such memorable meals!

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Comments (8)

feeny
14 years ago
What pattern? Spode has lots of different colors and designs.
decoenthusiaste
14 years ago
There are 1,000's of Spode patterns, some colorful, others not. Mine is full of golden yellow. What are we talking about, pattern and colorwise?
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Lanie Brown
14 years ago
tipi, I absolutely love your idea of showing a florist a plate as inspiration for a perfect centerpiece!
abbybuck
Original Author
14 years ago
It is the blue Italian. So the rich blue and white. Just don't know what to do to make it more relevant and cucrrent..
Lanie Brown
14 years ago
Mix with kelly green?
nasmijati
14 years ago
Abbybuck, Spode Blue Italian was launched in 1816, and is still being made today! There have been little idiosyncrasies over the years, such as two steps on one building, and three on another, which has endeared it to collectors. It is a very detailed pattern, and looks like dark blue lace to me when I look at it from a distance.

*) With classic two-color china, seasonal decorations are never out of place, no matter what color they are.

*) Red, white and blue is a popular color trio. Serve lasagna, cherry pie, red jello, you get the idea.

*) Make a bouquet of multicolor flowers, or put a different color flower at each place setting, with a placemat matching the flower. This could become quite a colorful table!

*) Use heavyweight dark blue plastic eating utensils for a surprise with fancy china.

*) Go to a craft store and buy a few rubber stamps of famous Italian buildings and/or famous Italian statues, similar in detail to the dish design, and an inkpad. (Multi-color, or medium-dark blue. Not navy blue). Make or buy a white paper table runner and white paper napkins and have fun stamping the designs on them with your children. If they are very young, get nontoxic ink. Let them practice all they like. For this table decoration, the memories are more important than the final product.

*) On a square table, you could use two table cloths. One put on the regular way, and the other on the diagonal. Perhaps a pale yellow, Kelly green, or magenta for the bottom cloth, and a blue or white one for the top cloth. Make a centerpiece featuring the color of bottom cloth, with a few blue and white accents.

I'm sorry I can't think of specific colors or color combinations that will make your dishes look modern. I did the best I could. tipi
feeny
14 years ago
last modified: 14 years ago
It's a very classic old-fashioned blue and white pattern (and I mean that in the best sense), so you aren't really going to be able to transform it into modern china, but I think pairing it with something like a really vivid yellow tablecloth and possibly some more modern, graphic yellow and blue patterned napkins and bright, cheerful floral bouquet with blues and yellows, might be a nice way to situate it in a more modern context.

Also, different patterns of blue and white china can be mixed and matched quite effectively. We happen to have three sets of blue and white china (two inherited with more old fashioned designs, and one a very modern Dansk pattern that we picked out). Sometimes we set the table mixing and matching the modern blue and white china with the antique patterns for a fun eclectic look.