in partnership with
Words by Dominique Gebru
Photography by Andrea Ahedo
Chris Loves Julia’s Julia Marcum shares her clever tips for making your dining nook into a wow moment.
Before the pandemic, Julia Marcum, the designer and self-proclaimed homebody behind the wildly popular blog Chris Loves Julia, always had people over. “My family and I loved to entertain,” she shares. “Now we use tablescapes to make another meal at home feel…not like just another meal at home.”
Setting a table is a lot like designing a room—scale, color, and texture should all be taken into consideration. With minimal surface area to work with, every inch counts, and the dinner plates, serving trays, and even salad spoons you choose should be hardworking: functional in form but driven by design.
Using black cane chairs from CB2 and a light wood table as the foundation, Marcum shares simple tabletop swaps that allow her dining nook to work for any occasion, at any time of day. Really, a marble tray or brass candlesticks is all it takes to make mealtime feel special again.
Bright
Brunch
Everyday
Casual
The key to a clever dining table is layers. In this playful brunch setup, an ornate serving tray inspired by “eccentric, stately homes of England,” says Marcum, introduces a hint of personality to an otherwise muted tablescape with its design of monkeys, peacocks, and various flora and fauna and brushed-gold lacquer trim. The brassy gold pops up again in the flatware. “If you have one thing that you want to highlight, whether that be a whimsical jungle table napkin or a really fun vase, you can start there and then pull in different colors and materials and create a whole palette,” she says. Slim glass pitchers, crisp matte white mugs, and a wavy footed bowl help the scene feel collected and organic.
When shopping for basics like plates, bowls, and flatware, avoid a “one-click catalog” look, as Marcum calls it, where every piece feels the same, by introducing options that play with scale and texture—even if they’re all part of the same palette. “If you want to have a layered look, which is what a tablescape is all about, don’t be afraid to bring in bowls and plates of different sizes,” she says. She puts that advice into practice, pairing surface clay soup bowls with coordinating dinner and salad plates for lunchtime. Against softer neutrals, the lava stone and resin tray and reclaimed teak salad servers with a burnt finish stand out as hero pieces. “This could have been a completely different color story if I paired any of those items with indigo plates. They are all totally interchangeable,” she adds.
DECADENT
at DUSK
Marcum likes to let the time of day determine the vibe when she’s designing a tablescape—and dusk calls for darker shades. “I have always liked mixing masculine and feminine,” she says. “I just love the idea of something that can appeal to a wide range of people.” Since food really pops on dinnerware in deeper shades, she couples glazed black mini bowls with marbleized resin trays and stonewashed gray plates. A moody floral runner anchors the table and serves as a backdrop for elevated accessories: Wavy brass candleholders, matte black flatware, and a Peruvian clay vase all work for date night or an evening with close friends. “Setting the table makes dining at home feel special again, which I think is something we’re all craving,” notes Marcum.
Shop all of Julia’s CB2 picks here.
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JUNGLE LINEN NAPKIN
SURFACE CLAY SOUP BOWL
PIN TUMBLED BLACK FLATWARE
SURFACE CLAY SOUP BOWL
PIN TUMBLED BLACK FLATWARE