Setting the Table with Black & White

In partnership with Unison.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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!)

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!

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!