Everyday Dining Table Decor Ideas
Even when you aren’t entertaining or eating in the dining room, it’s nice to keep your dining table fresh with simple, everyday décor. Let me give you some examples for inspiration.
There is also a Spring/Summer Outfit of The Week. It’s Sunday Faves time with Cindy and Annie.
First, let the wood show on your table (take the protective cover off if you are still using it) and use items from around your house like:
- Candles (hurricane or tapers)
- A Soup Tureen – Vintage or New
- Blue and White China
- A House Plant like a fern or orchids
- Branches from your Garden
- Fresh Flowers (or faux if you won’t be seeing them up close)
- A Footed Fruit Bowl, ceramic or wicker with fruit like lemons
- Table Throw or Runner
- A Drift Wood Branch
This popular post has been completely updated for 2026.
Tips For Everyday Decor On Your Dining Table
Candles (hurricane or tapers)
A Soup Tureen – Vintage or New
I bought the Italian soup tureen last Fall in Lyon, France and paired it with antique bent wood candle sticks.
Blue and White China
Andrew J. Howard places the collection in the center with one vase filled with fresh-cut flowers.
Or even just one planter as below. This is my friend, Debbie’s dining room. The blue and white planter is pretty on its own as the inside is painted too, but often Debbie places potted flowers here.
A House Plant like a Fern or Orchids
Branches from Your Garden
Homes To Love Some green foliage can make a stunning centerpiece like these magnolia branches.
Fresh or Faux Flowers
I recommend using fresh flowers for a dinner party if you are seeing them up close. But if not, faux can make a pretty vignette.
The same goes for candles. I use real candlelight for a dinner party and battery operated when you aren’t looking at them up close. Cindy gave me those shell encrusted candle sticks and I have been moving them around the house.
Footed Fruit Bowl and Candle Holders
An elevated fruit bowl and candles are one of my favorite combos.
This Hudson Grace footed fruit bowl is a favorite. I like a raised bowl as it gives it more prominence.
Table Throw or Runner
I love runners and a throw can be fun too to switch it up. This one is on clearance.
Driftwood or Other Easy To Wipe Down Accessories For Outside
As the weather warms up, we are eating more often here. I got the wipeable placemats at a little French shop with my sister on Coronado in San Diego.
And those are tips for Everyday Dining Table Décor!
You may also like: 12 Months Of Table Setting Ideas, How To Make Your Dining Room Informal and AD 25 Dining Table Centerpiece Ideas For Everyday.
Shop Dining Table Every Day Décor Ideas
Spring/Summer Outfit of The Week
This breezy striped seeksucker maxi dress from Anthropologie comes in petite, regular and plus. I am wearing it in a Petite Medium with an old woven belt (you could also wear it without a belt). My comfortable low wedge sandals are from a couple of years ago. These are similar.
Let’s check out what my friends are up to this week:
Mary Ann! First, that dress from Anthropologie looks fabulous on you! And I always love your tabletop ideas from tablescapes, to what to use on your table when you are not entertaining! Every table in every season is stunning!
xx
Thank you Mary Ann for a terrific post. Your soup terrain from Lyon is just heavenly. I have a real passion for tablecloths and especially like the french company Couleur Nature.
Have a lovely week!
Thanks for the tip about Couleur Nature, Francesca!
MA! You’re the queen of a pretty tabletop. I love your use of soup tureen’s. All your ideas. And what an adorable Anthro dress on you … clever to belt it. Thanks for so many great ideas. xo
I love the decorating ideas! I am inspired to try new decor for my tables! And I love the Tuckernuck dress. Their dresses look short on their models but a great length on you. Would you mind telling me how tall you are?
I’m 5’1″, Myla.
Thank you for these lovely ideas. Do you have the Green Row Seashell Candlesticks in small or large? Adore them!
I think mine are the large.
I look forward each week to your post…decor, recipes and especially your fashion. I too am 5’1″ and each week I think, I love her style and wish I could shop with Mary Ann!
Great tips, MA. Love the soup tureen idea. xo
So fun to see these beautiful tables and get ideas that will freshen up our dining rooms. I love Debbie’s dining room and wondered if you know the pretty gray wall color? I’m looking for a new color to paint my kitchen and thinking of something like this, maybe in a lighter tone.
On another note, I saw on the news this evening some horrible storms and flooding in FL. and I hope you are all ok in Jacksonville.
Hello there! Int he picture entitled FOOTED FRUIT BOWL AND HURRICANE CANDLE HOLDERS –
Where did you find the hurricane candle holders I love them. They are just the right style for my dining room table. Thank you!
They were from Pottery Barn several years ago. You could check there and WS Home.
Hi Mary Ann, Congratulations on your new home! I know your home will be warm and welcoming very soon and I’m looking forward to getting a glimpse of how you and Howard settle into your new lives and the adventures you will share about life on the East Coast.
I was very interested to read your post about helpful moving apps. I know you are very experienced in making big moves and I was wondering which moving company you have used that you would recommend.
Thanks,
Janna
I always get at least three quotes, Janna. For big move like this one, I went with a national company. Allied Van Lines. But there are others.
And thanks so much for your sweet comment!
I love putting interesting things on my table. I had to sell my dining room furniture when I moved so I purchased a white table and then bought 8 mismatched chairs. I painted each chair a color of the rainbow, pink, red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue and purple! It is so cheerful! Love it! I like to put a colorful runner down the middle and a bouquet of flowers on it or a plant.
That sounds amazing, Jane!
We are also in the process of moving to Florida (leaving North Carolina). Our previous home had a slightly more formal feel than our new home in Florida will have. I’m curious if you will be going with more casual or contemporary furniture in your new home or keeping most of your furniture from San Francisco. If you are repurposing your old furniture, will you be lightening up fabrics or anything?
I’m keeping all my favorite antiques and vintage things but the walls are white and I’m adding a few more modern pieces like a new dining table and light fixures. Most of my fabrics are already light in cotton and linen.
This is a great article! I love the tips on how to make your dining table look great every day. I especially like the tip about using a pretty tablecloth. It makes the whole room look more inviting.
Hello,
I love the picture with the footed fruit bowl and “air plants” with the blue and white captains chairs. I have an old queen Anne set that I am trying to update rather than splurge for a new set that rarely gets used. Are those slipcovers on the chairs? I love the idea of only having slipcovers over the backs of the chairs and not the full chair. Also the idea that the captains chairs are slightly different. Thank you for any inspiration you can provide.
Erica,
I’m not sure which chairs you are referring to? I don’t think there are any slipcovers in this post…but I like them.
Hi Mary Ann! I love all these beautiful dining rooms with very unique centerpieces. I think Erica is thinking the top of the blue chairs are slipcovers but they look upholstered to me. She just used a different fabric for the tops. I like that a lot.
You are right…they are upholstered.
My “almost” favorite thing ever…unique tablescapes…let your vignettes sing!! franki
Great news on your mom, blessings! I love those ceramic artichokes and I love the fern on the tables. Such great ideas! I have a very old dining table and nothing is on it, shame on me! Good ideas here to help me out, I know what I need to do now, thanks!
Shelly, thanks so much for commenting!
Mary Ann,
This is great, there’s some fresh ideas. I do keep my dining room table decked out and sometimes even set (as if I were going to entertain. It’s fun to pretend we’re having dinner guests! 🤗
xo,
Karen
Always love all your ideas. Thanks!
Such great ideas and inspiration. Now that we’re home more, I find I want to refresh our dining room and enjoy it in different ways. Thank you! Great news about your mom – hope you all enjoy your weekend!
Love the tips for center pieces. We are in the car on a trip, when my husband asked what I was doing. I told him I was reading and taking a class. Well, I am. I learned great ideas.
So happy your mother is going home. Now you can give her that hug! Still sending prayers.
Ha! You always crack me up, Kathy!! I’m so excited about your new banquette. Let me know when you want to Facetime fabrics.
Great tips Mary Ann! We have a new table and chairs on order…finally after searching for months! The table will be a foot longer than the current one so I will have a tad more room to style it . Right now I have a table runner and a ginger jar.
So happy to hear your mom is coming home…that’s great news. Breaking a hip is probably my biggest fear in old age. I have some osteoporosis but do everything I can to help it. But I refuse to take those awful drugs!
Linda
That is so exciting, Linda!
All of the ideas you present I find so inspirational. Would you please tell me again how to get in the queue to work with you on my dining room. The quick decorating project. Thank you.
Happy to hear about your Mom.
Eileen
Thanks, Eileen! Please contact me at [email protected]
Thank you for table centre blog today! I always love seeing a visual of decorating suggestions.
Thanks, Dee!
Mary Ann, I love your idea for enjoying the beauty of the table itself. It invites simplicity with objects already found like the soup tureen.
Blessings as you bring your mother home.
Diney on Camano Island
Thanks, Diney. I do like a simple approach for everyday!
Thanks for the reminder to uncover our tables and let them shine , fear of scratches
( especially on my piano) causes me to miss the everyday beauty of some of my favorite
pieces .
So happy to hear your mother gets to come home from rehab this weekend, more then
ever our parents are happier and safer at home when possible.
Thanks, Alexis.
Great news on your Mom. Happy, happy, happy. For my dining table, I do seasonal decor. So right now, I have a pumpkin with floral centerpiece and a cute wooden black cat with three little cats. For November, I will probably leave the pumpkin and floral but replace the cats with a turkey! Fun!
That is so fun, Linda!!
Lovely ideas for the dining room. I especially loved the glitz of the second one I saw; the chandelier and mirror were inspirational for a glamorous setting for a dinner party. Thank you!
My friend, Debbie has the best taste!
Would you know the source for wallpaper in the first dining room? Stunning
It’s the Lotus and comes in many colors… http://galbraithandpaul.com/wallpaper/lotus-2/
Thanks for all the great ideas! Lovely! I was wondering how you would change this up for a large round table such as we have. Thanks!
You could just use the one round fruit bowl, planter, or basket. Or group your collection of say, blue and white china in the center.