Try to set the table in a way that it does not block the free movement of guests. Not only does this give it a modern, professional look, it also helps with portion control as people are more likely to take just one of each item. "Its bright and clean, and it acts as a blank canvas for the rest of the decor," Lewis says. However, I always perfer a nice clean modern look, so you might want to check out the range of different risers here. You often see desserts served in jars, but don't forget about savory options too. Cookies. Check them out here. Partition off the eating area from the rest of the living space with a decorative folding screen and its own rug. Provide all of the utensils that will be needed for the food youre serving. Shop products from small business brands sold in Amazons store. 10 Summer Birthday Party Ideas for Adults: How to Plan Your Celebration? 2022 Wedding Hairstyles with Veil for Long, Medium and Short Hair, Veil or No Veil: 10 Tips for Brides to Help You Decide If You Want One, 2022 Themed Boy Baby Shower: Color Scheme Tips and Decorating Ideas, 2022 Wedding Guest Hairstyles: Fashion Trends and Ideas for Your Hairdo, 2022 Wedding Hairstyles with Bangs for Long, Medium and Short Hair. By an Award-Winning Professional Party Planner, Learn how to set up a buffet table / food station for parties, weddings, or entertaining at home. Buffet tables / food stations look terrible if everything lies flat on the table, so make sure to add some height to your display with a mixture of flat plates, cake stands, and risers. If you're doing a sit-down dinner, these laser-cut names make stunning place settingsand you can get them for less than $1 each. This could be a hot dog, burger, mac & cheese (below right), baked potato, taco, burrito, or mash potato (below left) bar with a selection of toppings, or something like a 'make your own grilled cheese' where you set up an electric panini press or toaster for guests to do it themselves. A fun way to serve individual bites is to skewer them on upright forks, like these cheese examples below. They won't look out of place with all the other plastic tasting cups and glass ones will only end up scratched and broken anyway. RELATED: How to Build a Banquette for a Cozy Space. If you've enjoyed thesefood station / buffet table ideas, please help me to promote my website by sharing this page. Another way to give your buffet table / food station a more professional look is to label each item. They're great for pasta salad, taco salads, or even regular salads. If it's a special occaision, such as a milestone birthday or baby shower, get some inexpesive personalized stickers printed (available here) to use as labels then tie a wooden fork or spoon (available here) around the neck with decorative string. 9 February 2021. You also have more room for decorations and it's easier to hide your spoons and tongs and things that have food on the ends. Leave me a comment in the box below. Write whether a dish is vegetarian, vegan, or gluten free on the label, beneath the name of the dish. Often, you're still serving the same types of food as you would on a traditional buffet table, but you're just presenting them differently. These square plastic tasting cups are also perfect for any number of snacks, salads, and dips. If it's for a party at home and you've got large numbers, just go ahead and use plastic ones. The console's daring fuchsia shade and pastel blue dining chairs steal the show in this trendy space. Such a table is greatly functional as a furniture piece because it gives you the freedom to go away from formality and serve your food in spectacular way. Unfortunately though, they're really aimed at wholesale purchasers so a lot of the items only come in cases of 50+. A brightly colored floral pattern like this one also hides inevitable stains and spills better than a solid color, too. This will help make it the focal point of your party decorations. The holidays are the time to put your style on full display. If you look closely at the photos below you'll notice that the menu is presented in groups; that is, only one type of food per serving plate. You can still batch-make everything in advance, then just before guests arrive, spend a little time dividing everything into small plates, bowls, and shooters. Lining just the top half of the wall also lets a pricey pick go further. See here for all options. Now that we've looked at how to set up a buffet table, with ideas for decorating, food styling, and presentation, head over to my other page of party drink ideas for more tips and suggestions to give your party a professional look and feel. Then, place your main feature at the center of the table and smaller accessories around the edges. Regardless of whether you have a small space that's outfitted with a cozy banquette or a formal setup with an elegant set of table and chairs, there's no shortage of dining room decorating ideas. The highest serving dish should be placed in the center of the table. Check out my Pinterest board 'Party Food: Shooters' for more menu ideas. You can pick up cheap mason jars here or failing that try here. By visually outlining various zones, you can make an open area feel more intimate. A room full of boxy pieces can quickly feel cramped, so go with a round dining table for a dynamic element. Top subscription boxes right to your door, 1996-2022, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Think about simple upgrades that can boost your dining room's style factor a fresh coat of paint (see what's trending for 2022), lively wall art or even a new rug to add some warmth. For example, dont forget the soup spoons if youre serving soup! If the theme is a holiday, choose colors that correspond with that holiday. These interactive food bars take the pressure off the host while providing an experience for the guests. You can pick up disposable shooters here. Another fun way to identify dishes on a buffet table / food station is to hand-write the name of each item on a chalkboard runner or table cover. Again, you can personalize these with simple stickers used as label and tie the utensils on with decorative string. Good Housekeeping participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. Monique Valeris is the senior home editor for Good Housekeeping, where she oversees the brand's home decorating coverage across print and digital. Learn more about our (It also helps reflect natural light, which can help the room feel bigger.) "Just love wikiHow, because I find your site very explanatory and easy to follow. Price and other details may vary based on product size and color. Use craft foam blocks with slits cut into it to support the forks, then either cover with gift wrap or place the foam into shallow boxes and cover with coarse rock salt, like in the example below. Weve been independently researching and testing products for over 120 years. Pick a shade with a hint of gray to make it feel warm and inviting. For example, if it is a Christmas buffet, use decorations that are red, green, and gold. Look at the gallery below and see wonderful examples of round table lunch buffet, outdoor buffet table and elegant decorations. A black-and-white palette doesn't have to be boring. An assortment of Windsor chairs bring color and personality to this spacious dining room in Dowagiac, Michigan. With food stations, everything is geared towards offering small plates, DIY options, and 'bites'like a tasting menuwhich can help keep costs down. You can also combine them with the square tasting cups above and serve salads with the dressing in pipettes. No matter what, supply plenty of spare napkins in case of a mess. Stackable trays are your friend in this situation. Whereas you might ordinarily serve things like chicken skewers piled up on a plate, by serving them in individual shooters with a little dipping sauce in the bottom, they instantly look more interesting. Functional pieces, like a rolling cart, can make it easy to pay bills at the table, and when it's not in use, place it out of sight once it's dinnertime. Just click on the Facebook or Twitter buttons below to post a link back to this page, or share this collage image. When it comes to presenting each food item, make use of a few different disposable tasting party containers (check out the full range here or alternatively try here). my Pinterest board 'Party Food: Stations, Hot', my Pinterest board 'Party Food: Shooters', my Pinterest board 'Party Food: Cold + Savory', my Pinterest board 'Party Food: Serve on Spoons', my Pinterest board 'Party Food: Pipette Ideas', check out the range of different risers here, this range of designer plastic tasting party supplies, my Pinterest board 'Party Food: Serve in Jars', Become an Event Planner: Secrets for Getting Hired from Employers, Recruiters, and Event Professionals, Hi, I'm Matt James, a professional event planner with 25 years experience. Inspiring tips to dress up your space, whether it's a small layout or a more formal setup. Depending on the occasion you may need some additional tables and chairs for your guests to eat their food as the buffet is a secondary or side table. Pick up the pipettes here. Food stations still enable you to feed large numbers, lay on a range of different dishesso there's something for everyone, and keep everything relaxed and informal enough so as not to kill the party mood. ), so it helps keeps the party atmosphere going. You could have cheese or fruit on sticks, or cheese and butter on crackers. She has also created a DIY online wedding planning workshop for couples, called "Plan Your Wedding Like A Pro." Place all the serving dishes that will be used on the table as you decorate. They're really great value and perfect to use as serving plates on a buffet table / food station. Learn more about our, 52 Gorgeous Dining Room Decorating Ideas for Every Design Style, Alyssa Rosenheck; Design: Mel Bean + Bailey Austin. You can pick them here. Skewering party foods with sauce filled pipettes is a really simple way to wow your guests with something unusual, and they work just as well with sweet or savory bites. They're also far more special than the regular store-bought 40th birthday party supplies emblazoned with 4-0. For an unexpected look, experiment with pastel hues in a dining room. wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. Introduce a woven accent, like an oversized pendant, to bring character into your dining space. This article was co-authored by Ivy Summer. Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 52,607 times. If you have decided to add a buffet table to your dining room, you may be surprised by the variety of designs and styles. Check out my Pinterest board 'Party Food: Stations, Hot' for more menu ideas and tips for preparing the hot elements using crockpots. Also, avoid sprinkling the table with glitter or other non-edible decorations, as these often end up on people's plates or in their mouths. To decorate a buffet table, decide on a color scheme and try coordinating your table cloth, table runner, napkins, and place mats to match it. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. They're old fashioned, sloppy, and bring to mind those nasty 'all you can eat' restaurant spreads where the food has been sitting there all day. Table runners should hang about 6 inches (15cm) down the table on both sides. Consider mint green walls a great complement for a slew of colors like white, beige and teal. There are a number of different designs available, depending on how many photos you want to include, and you can just use the 'Personalize' to change colors, fonts, and text. As a banquet manager, I find it useful for buffet set-ups.". 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These heavyweight plastic forks are designed to look like silver, so if you've got large numbers you could use these. Wainscoting or a chair rail creates a perfect base to highlight a favorite pattern. Update: Check out this supplier too as they often have better prices. If you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. What you find is that people pick and try a few things, then go back to mingling (rather than shuffling off to a corner to demolish a huge plate of food! By using this service, some information may be shared with YouTube. "You need to figure out the logjams that are creating clutter and handle those with portable solutions," professional organizer Lorie Marrero says. See my Pinterest board 'Party Food: Serve on Spoons' for more menu ideas. You could also buy accessories to enhance your color scheme, such as flowers or candles. Gallery walls aren't just for living rooms. Check them out here. RELATED: The Best Interior Paints and Color Trends of 2020. But worth a browse depending on your budget. When it comes to displaying the food, the reason most buffet tables / food stations at professionally catered events look so stylish is because they abide by a few simple rules; Groups, Rows, and Levels. All you have to do is settle on a delicious meal. Another great little attention to detail is to have personalized wooden utensils made for a special occasion, such as these below center and right. Left Field Productions has won 30 event industry awards for excellence including Production Company of the Year. However, don't include things like salt, pepper, or extra seasoningsif you have anything like that, it should be on its own station away from the main table. Think of some table decoration, but try not to overdo it as the main decoration of a buffet table is the food. Instead of redoing the walls, change the color underfoot for a makeover with major impact. % of people told us that this article helped them. Stick to all-white frames for an elegant, cohesive setup. Similarly, they also have matching premium plastic plates, such as the ones pictured below, available here. Alternatively, you could continue the 'Through the Years' theme by wrapping cutlery in napkins and fixing them in place with these stickers printed using old photos of the birthday boy or girl as a kidthey're only 5 eachavailable here. Finally, make use of different levels. 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You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io, 75 Design Upgrades to Elevate Your Bedroom, 42 Home Office Designs to Boost Your Creativity, 33 Chic Paint Colors to Upgrade Your Kitchen, 65 Easy Design Tricks for a Chic Living Room, 80 Gorgeous Kitchen Ideas You'll Want to Steal, Weve been independently researching and testing products for over 120 years. Setting up a buffet table requires planning for both convenience and appeal. Alternatively, you can buy chalkboard table covers, runners, and serving trays. Swap in statement linens to change the look of your dining room on the fly. How to Build a Banquette for a Cozy Space, The Best Interior Paints and Color Trends of 2020, The 10 Best Places to Shop for Furniture Online, 10 Cheap and Cheerful Ways to Update Your Kitchen. Bring your dining room to life with a striking arrangement full of woven baskets. wikiHow is where trusted research and expert knowledge come together. Navy blue walls stand out against doses of white in this Ginny Macdonald-designed dining room. Don't forget to arrange your serving plates on a number of different levels. If you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Let your chairs set the scene by picking a design in an unexpected color, like this sunny yellow or an inviting blush pink. A blend of calming blue tones and warm neutrals give this dining space a coastal vibe. They look great lined up en-masse on a buffet table / food station. Party Ideas by a Pro | The difference is that you get to wow guests with the elegant and creative presentation that comes with plated dishes, and the food station becomes a focal point in the room to center all your party decorations around. Layer in various textures like a rattan pendant and woven rug to add excitement. See here for both options. To make people want to eat the appetizers, make the food look more appetizing than the entree. An easy way to style the dinner or buffet table for a 40th birthday celebration is to use these personalized napkin wraps, below left available here, or these glittery 40 napkin holders that come in a range of different colors, available here. If I have limited space and I'm doing a buffet, how do I keep guests only eating appetizers and not entrees? Have your say about what you just read! Ivy Summer. Shooter glasses (below left) in particular are extremely versatile. Additionally, make labels for each dish so guests will know which types of food are on offer. Ivy Summer is a Certified Wedding Planner and the Owner of Voulez Events. Consider oversized cloth napkins in colors that match your theme. Check them out here. Ok so I've got to tell youbuffet tables are over. You can also get more creative with salads, such as this chilled sesame salmon, rice, and avacado salad (below left), or just use them for mousses, fruit cups, or even individual cups of anti-pasti. By choosing a theme, getting a tasteful amount of decorations, creating a logical progression for your guests, and doing a trial run, you can ensure that your table will be decorated beautifully and conveniently for your event. These inexpensive design ideas have all the inspiration you need to make your dining room picture-perfect and ready for family and friends to enjoy. Statement floral centerpieces and vibrant melon walls, which pair well with green patterned curtains, bring this dining space to life. Alternatively, if it's a less formal event, you can do something similar with simple kraft paper. Dining spaces, like the design in this 1980s ranch house, can benefit from contrast. See my Pinterest board 'Party Food: Serve in Jars' for more menu ideas. "Neutrals like grays and natural materials like leather and stone are foolproof together," says designer Amber Lewis. A buffet table describes a piece of furniture for the dining room or a method of serving food to our guests and they can freely choose food and drinks, serve themselves and cutlery is usually just a fork.