Leahwalker, if you enjoy setting your table, please come join in on the holiday forum. We do allot of tablesettings for holidays and in between too, and love seeing everyone's pretty dishes and accessories.

To answer your question, I usually just have a centerpiece and maybe some placemats on mine.

Luvs

I can't see the point of a fully dressed table gathering dust unless you are using it. But, if you like it who are we to say if it is right or wrong.
I dress up mine with fresh flowers or a nice vase. The choice is up to you. I only set the table when we actually are going to use it. Then I clear everything off and leave the flowers.

If you are talking kitchen table, just a centerpiece of some kind, sometimes a large pillar candle in an interesting holder, and usually the remote for the kitchen TV! LOL

Dining table, I don't have one currently, but when I did usually had a centerpiece and perhaps a runner, or a candlescape, etc.

I don't care for the look of empty placemats on a table - to me it feels like someone forgot to put them away. And to have a table set completely that isn't about to be used just seems so busy to me, and detracts from the piece of furniture being enjoyed.

I recall one episode of interior designer Kenneth Brown's show, when he was shopping with a client for accessories, and they came across a table in the store that was fully set. He said 'never do that in your home', it makes people think they are going to be served a meal, or they have interrupted something if they just stop by. Now, he isn't the law, so of course it is up to everyone to do what works for them. I thought it interesting that he made such a point of it, tho, and his reasoning makes sense to me.

Oooh I wish I could make a distinction between a kitchen table and a dining room table - lol! Unfortuantely we just have an eat-in kitchen. Next house... I miss "rooms". I would kill for an eat-in kitchen AND a formal dining room.

I tend to keep mine clear, for the clutter factor combined with a kitchen that's smaller to begin with, with a small scale center piece and 2 candle holders.

If we are having people over to eat, I will do a full setting (I've looked at the tablescaping and I'm no where near that talented!)

Cleared except for the candles and the daily newspaper and mail scattered about.

My dear SIL keeps her very large dining table always set with all kinds of plates, silver, crystal, flowers, many candles, a couple of bottles of wine, way overboard, and it's really sparkly and gorgeous. Not my thing, but she and her husband are theatre/dance/musician people, and she enjoys and is good at that kind of decoration. It doesn't just sit there gathering dust, she changes it all the time and uses the plates as chargers when she serves a meal. At their house, I love the look.

Centerpiece only at my house! ;c) Maybe a Runner at Christmastime

I do well to keep a heavy centerpiece actually centered on my table, what with 2 new super-hyper kittens in the house. I can't even display my pretty table runners anymore. ::pout::

round kitchen table - fake fruit in a glass cylinder. Dining room, runner and a centerpiece - I change it out all the time. I love a beautiful set table but agree that it looks like a bit much for everyday.

Um, aging vinyl tablecloth (over my pretty Mission-style table which I miss, and can't wait to see again in fifteen years when my boys go off to college). I occasionally accessorize with crumbs or small plastic toys.

walkin!!!!!ROFL very funny!

cleared w/runner, nice crystal vase (sometimes w/flowers), candles

What stays out is the stuff we use to set the table for dinner. Not plates, glasses, or silverware. But placemats, candles, trivets, and fresh flowers. The table is antique wood drop leaf so we use table clothes or placemats for every meal to protect the wood. I like the look of a bare table too, but with everyone here coming and going and smacking down wet glasses and hot plates, it's just easier to keep the linens out and ready to use.

Just a centerpiece.

Walkin - lol!

Just a centerpiece here, too. A friend of mine started to keep hers set - I always feel like I'm intruding for some reason. But, I do love a prettily set table!

I'm with Judith on this one...for the nook table, it's set with a centerpiece of some type and placemats and maybe napkins or tablecloth to protect the wood from everyone just plunking down a plate when they munch. For the dining table, just a centerpiece arrangement of some type.

Ours is cleared except for the centerpiece, it's the Southern Living At Home two-tier Red Mountain plate stand. I change the plates w/ the seasons, and put a hand-made doily under it.

We can't leave the table set, we have a cat and stray pet hair could find it's way onto a plate, and we can't have that. But that's good since I like the neatness of everything cleared off anyway.
Susan

I used to keep the dining table bare with a centerpiece with candlesticks flanking it. I now keep table pads and a table cloth along with the centerpiece and candlesticks on my dining table,since a coffee ring mysteriously appeared on our antique table. Kitchen table usually only looks nice and cleared off on Saturday eve until Sunday night, then it starts building up again! but underneath the clutter may be a runner with candle in a hurricane glass. Or sometimes a vintage tablecloth.

Sometimes a centerpiece, sometimes candles, sometimes placemats. I never leave it fully dressed. Seems a little odd to me, like I am waiting for a magazine photographer to walk in. But that's me, to each his own! Plus, I have a cat, which all of you with a cat can understand. He's still a babe (only 4 months old) and doesn't jump that high yet, but it's only a matter of time.

On the kitchen table I try to keep a small vase of flowers and on the dining room table - just dust.

Dust is an issue with me too... I have a small bird who is simply a dust factory.

Not set with dishes -- but my kitchen usually wears a tablecloth -- with a old wicker tray that holds the salt-and-pepper grinders, napkin holder and a pretty olive-colored glass hurricane candle holder. Simple and quick to clear -- I love using trays on tables!

The dining table is currently set with a gold velvet tablerunner and a very large brass tray with a huge hurricane candleholder. Plus the odd cat that should really know better by now -- and is dancing on its last life if I catch it! LOL!

Cleared, except for a small table-topper that the French call a "nappe," and a pitcher. The "nappe" is actually much more subdued irl: more of a faded rust color:

P. S. Here's a French table-topper presently on ebay, if anybody's into black toile. . .

Here is a link that might be useful: Black Toile Quilted Table-Topper

That eBay table topper is 54" X 54", it says, and it's almost exactly like the cotton quilted throws sold at Marshall's for $20. I have used one of those as a table cover, but not for eating on. They seem too stiff to use as a throw.

wooderlander: That's strange. I think the one at Marshall's must be of a different material. But maybe not. The one we have was a gift from some French friends and is very soft. But we don't usually eat on it--we use placemats under the dinnerware, which I think I prefer, anyway. :)

Organic smallhome - Yours looks like it was intended for the table instead of a 54" square like the eBay one, which is what I was comparing to my Marshall's version. At least in the picture, yours looks smaller to me.

The Marshall's ones are cotton through and through, but they're definitely not French -- probably from China, right? -- and I'm sure not nearly as nice as yours though they look okay on the table. I have a white one and a sort of taupe one. My comparison was to the eBay version and not to your pretty French nappe.

Your table looks lovely and gave me the idea of using a pitcher in the middle. I remembered that we have several sitting in the back of a cupboard right now, including one I bought in France years ago and some Mexican ones. Thanks for the good idea!

Woodlander: Yes, it was intended for a table--and you're right: mine is smaller than the Marshall's or the ebay one. In any case, I certainly didn't take offense, so don't worry about that! Mine is nice enough--it does the job--but I don't think it's super high quality or anything expensive. :) I got the pitcher idea myself from my French friend in Avignon. Her furniture is much more rustic than mine--you know, the usual thrown-together, fabulous mismatch the French seem to do so well, and without thinking about it--and she had just a simple pitcher on her table, with no nappe at all. It looked lovely, but on my table, the pitcher just looked lost, so I asked them to bring me a nappe the next time they came to stay with us, and they did! I probably wouldn't have chosen this exact design, but I was so appreciative and I like it well enough. :)