Dining Room The Victorian House

Setting the Table with Black & White

In partnership with Unison.


Our dining room is on the plain side. I don’t mean that in a bad way, but the whole room consists of plaster pink walls, lots of unpainted wood, and metal chairs that were better suited to our old house. I like the color palette (pink loves brown!), but it does need a bit of oomph. Until we’re ready to change things up on a grander scale, I like to play around with table settings to give the room a different look.

Setting the Dining Room Table with Unison Home | Making it Lovely

Mmm, cake.

I added that ubiquitous black and white striped rug about a year ago to break up the sea of wood, but hadn’t made any other changes. Unison reached out recently about taking part in a little challenge. Decorate a room with Unison, and they’ll be sharing my space along with a few others on Instagram (look for the #UnisonHomeChallenge). That’s coming next week and when they share, the photo with the most likes will win its creator some additional Unison goodies. Fun, right? I was in.

Unison Dining Table Settings | Making it Lovely

Black flatware had been on my wish list forever, so I started there and it is amazing. (Dishwasher safe, too!) From there, I started looking at their tableware and I was drawn to the Merchant Charcoal plates. I like the graphic punch of the black plates with the flatware, and they’re going to be fun to mix and match with our other dishes.

Black Dishes and Flatware from Unison Home | Making it Lovely

I almost always set a table with a tablecloth, but I challenged myself to do something a little different this time. Instead of bringing in pattern with a tablecloth, I left the table bare to show off the wood and instead used these grid napkins. The black and white pattern works well with the rug, and then I added the striped Omaggio vases and a few smaller black and white vases to flank them.

Black and White Omaggio Vases from Unison Home | Making it Lovely

Those waxy yellow flowers — aren’t they cool? Beehive ginger. I had never seen them before. (If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen me arranging them. They get weird random petals that pop out and have to be removed each morning!)

Dining Room Table Setting with Black and White Omaggio Vases from Unison Home | Making it Lovely

I added pink glasses and a cake stand. Together with the flowers, the table feels very ‘spring.’ If you added eggs and bunnies you’d have a pretty cute Easter table!

Dining Table Set with Unison Home | Making it Lovely

Dining Room with Unison Home Table Settings | Making it Lovely

Such a good, modern pieces to work as a counterpoint to the more traditional envelope of the room. They’re going to be fun to work into other settings too.

You can follow Unison on Instagram, and remember to keep an eye out next week for the #UnisonHomeChallenge posts to go up to see three other takes on the challenge!

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  • Judy Jensen
    March 25, 2017 at 2:29 pm

    Where did you get those metal chairs? They sure would give my collected kitchen an update.

    Thank you

    • Making it Lovely
      March 31, 2017 at 10:42 am

      Mine are from Industry West, but they’re pretty common chairs sold all over the place (DWR for the real Tolix chairs, Target, Overstock, Wayfair, etc. for knockoffs).

  • ivey
    March 27, 2017 at 3:39 am

    Very beautiful and sophisticated style. The vases and all black utensils are unique…

    • Making it Lovely
      March 31, 2017 at 10:43 am

      Thank you! I love the black flatware.

  • Becky B
    March 28, 2017 at 9:33 am

    Love me some black and white, stunning tablescape–all the heart eyes :)

  • Lilly Collins
    March 29, 2017 at 3:05 am

    Lovely colours. The black and white is a wonderful combination.

    • Making it Lovely
      March 31, 2017 at 10:43 am

      Thanks! Black and white is so easy to mix up for other schemes too.