I have pads for my table that I've made out of padded vinyl fabric. While practical and good table protection, it's not attractive so I cover it with a table cloth when I use them. I don't use them outside at all in that I have glass-topped tables.

I love tablecloths. I use them every other day at home at the kitchen table. I also like placemats, so I alternate. I have a problem with table top things. Just bought a new linen tablecloth in chartreuse.

I am evenly divided between place mats and table cloths for formal dining as well.

I use them on our kitchen table, as I prefer a cloth to placemats, and like the decorative element. I buy coated cotton French cloths, so that they wipe off easily.

Anytime I eat on my mahogany dining room table, I use a table cloth. I think if I had a rustic table top or something more durable (glass, etc) I wouldn't bother. But I worry about the wood being damaged without a tablecloth. I'm not sure if that's really what would happen, but that's what my family always did growing up with our wood dining table.

One summer our friends returned from Provence and one of the items they returned home with was a very French country looking tablecloth. It wasn’t plastic, was fabric, but virtually stainproof. It had what I think of a that French country pallette that includes blue (delphinium blue), white, and orange. Pre-Covid, they entertained often.

A year or so after that, I was shopping and spotted a similar tablecloth from the same unusual fabric. It didn’t have my French country colors, but it was on sale and I bought it. I used to entertain (informally), but no longer, especially since Covid and our keeping chickens, goats and water buffalo on the first floor. That tablecloth is still in the linen cupboard. Maybe could fashion a dress from it.

This site had some prettty outdoor cloths.

https://www.aprilcornell.com/prod_detail_list/kitchen-linens-new-arrivals/a

(also some stuff that I don’t care for at all). But I like the garden. My gardens used to look quite like this. These days I might be considered a ”has been.” 😂😂😂

Prickly, you have to protect a fine wooden tabletop. Some people prefer seeing the gleaming wood and use a felt pad underneath a linen placemat. No hot food can be placed directly on the tabletop. I would not feel comfortable without a felt pad underneath my table cloth.

The use of tablecloths, I believe was done to render serviceable sub optimal dining tables.

Petalique, I love April Cornell linens.

Sure that or place mats.

This is pretty

https://thecustards.blogspot.com/2013/04/all-vintage-embroidered-tablecloths-are.html

I used to play around with crewel. It’s so much fun making French knots and stems.

I typically use block print tablecloths or rattan placemats - indoor or outdoor dining.

Yes, prickly. Zalco is correct. You absolutely must protect a wooden table. I inherited a simple country table that has the stain of metal pliers forever on it. The daughter! Her parents would be sad, but understanding.

I might go for a small silk tablecloth like this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3FDidsjJnA

This is one that I made for my 42" diameter glass top in Venice. Dinner was Eggplant Parmigiano that day. I made placemats and napkins out of some fabric with the same pattern, but a different color. I got the fabric for free at work from the remnants section, and so I had to work with what I had.

I should find this tablecloth because I could use it on my kitchen table in Cathedral City, but so far, I've only put placemats on that table because I love the quartz marble. I always put tablecloths on glass dining table tops because I don't like looking through them.

This dining table had an upside-down stool for the base, and I had put a strobe light in the bottom of the base for special effects during parties. I did not use a tablecloth when I used the strobe light.

Lars, your table looks great. You are so talented.

Pass the eggplant parm — you've made me hungry.

I like tablecloths but have a mortal fear of spilling lasagna on them. And that would hallen on my oldest or most favorite, of course. We have some lovely ones brought back from Denmark, and from Dad’s tour of duty in Japan. Alas, in boxes.

Our kitchen table has a laminate top. Boy oh boy, you can’t kill that thing. Still, we use placemats because it’s a little quieter.

Associated question: do you light candles on the table? We do. We started when the boys were babies, to create a nice dining environment. We still do, although now they are usually tealights in glass holders. Trouble-free but still kinda cozy.

Sounds nice, bpath. I love candles, and like you, prefer that they be in safe holders.

What are you protecting your wood tables from? We usually only use table pads when dressing the table for a very formal affair. For everyday, place mats work fine. And sometimes I leave the table naked, put the plate and serving dishes right on the wood.

I’ve had big white splots from someone leaving a hot pizza box on our dining room table (cherry). Even those spots were not difficult to remove.

Like Annie, I have table pads on my large dining table and cover it with a casual table cloth and different table runners. I tried leaving the table bare, but DH seems to want to use the table for odds and ends and will sit down and decide to work on something or other there. So out of protection for the table I went this route.

I really appreciate the feedback on how to protect my table! I love the wood and definitely want to keep it safe. Most of the time it's just naked in the house, but that's because we tend to eat at countertop or (gasp) coffee table since it's just two of us (or often just me since my husband is gone a lot for work). I've been doing double table cloths, but I think I should get a pad instead. It may not be classy but I always put down a potholder under any hot dishes on top of the table cloth. I'm not very experienced at proper entertaining. Maybe I should try placemats so my pretty table top can be visible the next time we host.

Prickly, if you sendom used your table, you can continue to leave it bare and enjoy the beauty of the wood.

My personal taste is informal. Give me a cabin or airy house, Wood, large windows, no curtains or minimal, No fuss surfaces. Quit]et, fresh air, woods or lake or shore or meadow. No one much around but wildlife. Stone, wood, a few used Persian carpets. Windows that open wide. Lots of bfreeze and natural light. I don’t do formal.

But some enjoy more formal decor.

We have a table pad and I love tablecloths. I love my antique heavy one that I use for formal Thanksgiving meals. I have lots of different ones. Petalique, I even have several April Cornell ones! When not in use, I prefer an uncovered table simply because that was how I was raised. My husband prefers to keep the table covered all the time. He worries about something happening to it, but I figure if you have something nice, you should enjoy it! I think that, being a bit of a hoarder, he just wants to own it and it doesn't matter if he can't enjoy its beauty. Sigh.

I keep my dining table uncovered.

I only use candles at the table on special occasions, which is odd because I really like them.

It's extremely rare that I would use a tablecloth, even though I have some lovely vintage ones. We have a beautiful antique table in the dining room, why would I want to cover it? I wax it maybe once a year and that helps protect it. Wood is pretty forgiving. I do like to use charger plates, placemats, maybe a square center cloth or runner. We do not do "formal" entertaining.

The Mr. and I eat in the kitchen nook, also a wood table, also no tablecloth.

I wonder what ’Roseann’ used….

Always for special occasions, and placemats for more casual meals. I've been so grossed out in restaurants when they don't have either, tho I haven't eaten in a restaurant for several years now.

I use them every day. I'm a spiller. I have many tablecloths and I love decorating the table a variety of ways. It allows me to indulge my decorating itch in a low key way. It's like a mini dining room redo every couple of weeks.

I use placemats for everyday and keep DR table bare except for runner or centerpiece. If using the DR for a meal we use tablecloths with table pad or placemats. I have a white stain on my round oak kitchen table from food that was too hot and the trivet pad wasn't thick enough. I haven't been able to remove it, so I turned the table and keep it covered with my placemat. I love candles, but rarely use them unless it's a more formal dinner.

I really like the pads I made...I keep them rolled up around a cardboard bolt. They are simply backed vinyl. The beauty is they are waterproof, cushioned and no seams like there are with the manufactured ones that fold up.

I like those fringed and sort of stretchy ones that you just throw in the wash.

When we used to set the big table for holidays (which my niece has now), it had those custom leatherette folding table pads which were heat resistant and muffled everything, and when I had my Stickley table I got those for it as well, and sold them with the table

The thing that I miss about a newly reopened restaurant in my neighborhood is that the old restaurant had the padded tables with a cloth and the new restaurant has mostly tables with granite tops. Much prefer the muffled experience.

@bpath ee enjoy candles too! i like to use a few clear glass (jar type) holders.

@lizbeth-gardener about your white marks…are they like this?

Iron set medium high, keep it moving while pressing down hard. That’s a terry cloth towel between rhe iron and the table.

OK.....you all got me motivated. I should invest in a table cloth or two....for my dinette. The smoky glass top is dated....a table cloth would give it new life. Pottery Barn has a killer sale on this one, it's lined: My Dansk Blue Mesa dishes would have a cool vibe.

Oh well...not big enough...my table is 53".

maddielee, I haven't tried that. I thought I would have to refinish. I will give it a try. Thanks!

That’s pretty, Nicole.

Maddielee, that is so interesting. A lot of varnished furniture seems to have these white marks. Once, while hanging around a joiner’s shop, he told me that he gets rid of there white marks by spraying on the varnish solvent. (He had a well ventilated area, a huge industrial exhaust fan.) IIRC, I believe the stuff has toluene and other nasty stuff in it.

Have you personally tried the iron therapy? Amd the terrycloth doesn‘t leave the fabric weave pattern on the finish surface?

I’ll have to remember that trick,

@petalique, that’s my table! our som had put a pizza box down and no one noticed it til the damage was done. He felt so bad, I told him it was fixable. I took the photos to send him to show him that his momma can do anything.

The white is moisture and heating the area draws the moisture out. some people just slap a heating pad on the spots and swear that works too. I have not tried that.

Maddielee is right! I have tried that on a piece of wood furniture. You can also try a hairdryer.

white marks on wood furniture

(haha momma can do anything!)

That’s amazing.

I love Williams-Sonoma boutis tablecloths. They are fairly thick, and wash beautifully. We generally keep one on at all times to,protect the table.

No, but I keep a runner on the table. We will use a vinyl tablecloth if we are eating outside on the deck.

What Kswl said : ) .

Esp block print tablecloths as rubyclaire mentioned. With round rattan placemats on top and block print cloth napkins (not necessarily matching the tablecloth). I also have some of the French coated cotton tablecloths, and an English William Morris oilcloth tablecloth, that I keep on the outdoor wooden table on the back porch because it's easy to wipe clean.

I love the look and change the colours for depending on the season or holiday. And I almost always have some plants or vase of flowers on the table, so the extra protection is helpful because it's an antique mahogany D-end table.

I just got a round table. The wood is not beautiful. But it is the perfect size, well built, and light enough so I can move it around easily. 7 or 8 years ago I might have chalk painted it but that is more work than I'm up for at the moment.

I am buying some table cloths in various colors that drop all the way to almost the floor and I like the way that looks. I forecast there will be a lot more varied tablecloths in my future perhaps some floral. I might add place mats on top of the tablecloth once in a while just to add pattern/color.

Keep an eye on Williams-Sonoma’s tablecloths. I have a 60” round table and over the years, I’ve found some nice 90” round cloths on sale at W-S.