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With the summer just around the corner, we are ready to reactivate our gardens and terraces to spend the best moments of the summer.
And one of the best ways to enjoy these precious spaces is to have meals outside. The garden can in all respects become an extra "room" in our house and I would add, the most beautiful room in the house during the summer!
I therefore recommend that you take care of the furnishings of this area very carefully, in order to make it truly comfortable and relaxing, because nothing like a well-kept and well-furnished garden is able to give you moments of authentic well-being.
In articulating this chapter, I would like to focus on the setting of an outdoor table, and I would like to give you some ideas on how to create a special setting if you want, for example, to organize a nice dinner with friends.
First I would talk about the choice of the tablecloth.
How to set your table surrounded by greenery
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Personally, I really love using striped fabrics on the outside, which I find lively and at the same time elegant for the garden. Unlike in the house, in fact, in the garden you will not be constrained by the presence of other fabrics, or furniture that imposes one style rather than another. In fact, you will be mainly surrounded by greenery and possibly by patches of flowers, and you can therefore choose the style to give to your table more freely. As I told you, therefore, I would play an outdoor fixture with a slightly more joyful and colorful elegance than indoors. Even for the garden, however, I would always opt for a tablecloth with a nice drop of at least 35 or 40 cm on each side of the table because a short or even skimpy tablecloth is inelegant even in a garden. If you wish and if the occasion calls for a "coup de teatre" you could also decide to put a table cloth that covers the table to the ground, but being in the garden, in this case I would opt for a simple and fresh fabric, like cotton. Match it with the tablecloth and for example choose a square to match the lines of your tablecloth, or perhaps a wide line that you will then repeat in the napkins if the tablecloth is narrower.
As an alternative to stripes, for the garden all the green shades are beautiful, especially the most natural ones, which therefore recall the colors of the surrounding landscape. Also very beautiful are the combinations between some slightly dusty floral patterns, which recall English gardens and our stripes or a picture!
Naturally, it is extremely easy for me to advise you to use a wonderful stain-resistant fabric tablecloth, because it is evident that in this situation the incomparable side of the practicality of our tablecloths finds its natural place. So you can set the table with extreme elegance, allowing yourself a richly finished tablecloth with coordinated edges and assorted napkins, but with the plus of ease of maintenance.
So let's start, for example, with a striped tablecloth perhaps in a fresh and always very elegant beige and white or in shades of blue!
Details that will help you complete your garden table
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And which details, which materials will be most suitable to complete your table in the garden?
I would opt for some rattan or natural wicker details because they really give a fresh look to the table and if you don't use them here then where?
You can easily find nice placemats for example, there are many types on the market; for the choice of dishes in the garden I find absolutely perfect the use of melamine as elegant and not in too bright colors, more suitable for a children's party. As it happens, Borgo delle Tovaglie has a line of melamine tableware that is in complete harmony with the philosophy of our tablecloths which aims to combine elegance and practicality.
For the choice of cutlery you can range from steel, to cutlery with wooden handle, even with a handle in colored resin, perhaps matched to the colors of your tablecloth. The napkins, obviously in fabric, never in paper! I like to put them in the color that recalls the edge of the tablecloth, to create a pleasant contrast on the table. You could also choose another pattern or a line of a different size but in the same color as the tablecloth.
Finally the glasses, even if we are in the garden, I would opt for glass and why not, colored! Also beautiful are some glasses covered at the base, with woven raffia, at the end of the meal you can easily remove them from the case and put them in the dishwasher. There are also similar solutions for glass jugs and bottles, which will give a very fresh and elegant look to your equipment. Also remember that outdoors it is necessary to use a cooler for wine and if possible also for water because drinks heat up very quickly. You can complete your equipment with a centerpiece and it could be fun, for example, to use dehydrated boxwood spheres of different sizes placed on vases linked by the guiding thread of color or shape. You will thus reproduce the idea of an Italian garden with hedges and bushes. Alternatively, beautiful and truly spectacular, I recommend hydrangeas.
If you are inviting for lunch, remember to include a sun umbrella or a pergola, because the sun straight on your head can be very annoying even in spring. If you will be lighting in the evening, remember to provide some kind of lighting. Always very nice for the light and for the scenography, candles and torches scattered around the table and some windproof candles on the table. You will not have to provide for daylight lighting, but make sure that your guests can see what they have on their plates. If you are in summer, you should also remember to place citronella candles to protect yourself from the nuisance of mosquitoes, which invariably come alive at sunset.
Dinner in the garden: what to bring to the table
Shall we also have a chat about a hypothetical menu suitable for a dinner in the garden? Of course it depends a lot on the temperature, because if it is really very hot you will have to opt for really fresh and light dishes such as a gaspacho and an excellent veal with tuna sauce accompanied by a tasty salad perhaps a little enriched, with sunflower seeds or other. I would avoid a full menu with many courses and would rather opt for an appetizer with a good main course and a dessert to follow. Some themed dinners are also very funny, such as the Spanish dinner based on paella, sangria and tapas
For an outdoor dinner, a good barbecue could of course also be fun, but perhaps made more original with somewhat unusual recipes. Did you know, for example, that you can grill fruit!?