Product Description

Presentation is everything--and now, creating a beautiful table has never been easier. This visually luscious book is packed with deceptively simple ideas for creating witty and unusual table settings. Arranged thematically, TABLETOPS features imaginative styling tips, ideas for quick fixes, and beautifully illustrated step-by-step projects, including everything from appliquÈd tablecloths to painted glasses, stamped bowls, punched tin lanterns, and gorgeous floral centerpieces. With 20 table designs and more than 30 projects in all, this is a wealth of inspiration for every event. Whether planning a fun-filled beach picnic, a romantic anniversary, a cozy tea, or a sophisticated holiday dinner, now it's simple to pull together all the right elements to create the perfect atmosphere and make any occasion memorable.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #657159 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 128 pages

From Publishers Weekly
For occasions when cooking a delicious meal just isn't enough, freelance writer and photo stylist Rigg here offers domestic dynamos ideas for themed table décor. Twenty table settings and their accompanying crafts projects (e.g., "French bistro" calls for red sponge-painted bowls, "Ethnic ambience" for a hand-stamped tablecloth and "Winter picnic" for an appliqued throw) are displayed in bright photographs designed to inspire readers to ever higher heights of mealtime style. The projects themselves are simple and inexpensive, as the introduction promises, although the settings in their entirety may not be so easy to achieve. For the "Afternoon tea" tabletop, for instance, the suggested handicraft is a lovely and uncomplicated hydrangea and rose centerpiece. But as far as the rest of the décor is concerned, "only the best" will do: white linen napkins with a matching tablecloth, "dainty cake forks and teaspoons" and a bone china tea pot are all "musts." The "Winter picnic" is a little simpler-though "stylish picnicware, napkins and a cruet set are vital"-but its cute throw, achieved by sewing felt leaves onto a blanket, probably wouldn't last through a single wash cycle. Other, smaller projects (Rigg calls them "mini-makes") are also recommended, and may be more realistic endeavors for the time-pressed homemaker: a bangle napkin ring, a pumpkin serving bowl and fabric jar tops are all quick ways to liven up a table. But ideas like these-and indeed, like many of the projects-abound in women's lifestyle magazines, which means readers might want to spend a few dollars on a Martha Stewart issue instead of many times that much on this glossy but superficial guide.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Jo Rigg is a freelance photographic stylist and writer whose work has appeared in a range of craft and interior design magazines and books. She lives in South London.

Customer Reviews

Not what I was expecting
The book has beautiful images, but I was expecting more elaborated instructions. For example: The picture in the cover is beautiful but when you go inside the book to learn how to recreate something like that, it only teaches you how to color feathers... And the situation repeats itself on almost every tabletop idea.

good ideas
This book has some great ideas that are fun and easy enough to try the next time I entertain. I especially liked the chopstick placemats. Plus it is much simpler to have one book to rely on than dragging out a binder of magazine clippings every time I'm looking for inspiration.