How to Do a Beautiful Casual Table Setting – Fast!

I’m just going to jump right to the point here – the secret to doing a beautiful casual table setting fast, is to have everything handy! This table literally took me less than 10 minutes to set. And that’s because I have my things stored right there in the dining room.

We’ll talk about keeping everything handy in another post. But for now, let’s discuss the “fast and casual” part.

What do I mean by a casual table setting?

Lots of people have lots of different answers to this question. But for our purposes right now, I’m talking more about the tone of the evening than the table itself. A “casual” meal is one where we’re only eating one course, we only need one plate, and we don’t need a lot of flatware.

And I want to set it fast – no fussing around. Plus, I want it to look like I didn’t fuss around, since the gathering is relaxed and spontaneous.

As you notice, this table has no tablecloth, or even placemats. That’s one of the things that makes it seem like a casual table setting to me.

Also, although you most often see chargers on formal tables, I like to use them for a casual table setting too. It sets off our one plate and make it look a little fancier.

The thing that makes using chargers super easy of course, is that I keep them in a cupboard of my buffet. Totally handy.

Even a casual table setting can be beautiful

This particular dinner was a pot luck with our wonderful neighbors. They smoked various kinds of meats and fixings, my husband made some dishes, and we put together a street taco smorgasbord! Then we lined everything up on the buffet, grabbed our plates, and had at it!

But just because it was fast and casual, doesn’t mean it can’t be beautiful. For instance, I did use my crystal water glasses. They were even faster and easier than my regular glasses because I keep them right there in the dining room.

The candles pretty much live on the table, so those were easy too.

However, everything doesn’t have to be Just Precisely So

I’d be the first to argue that there are times when I want everything perfect. A tablescaping competition, or a super-fancy party. However, as one of my coaches likes to say, Better Done than Perfect!

Remember that game in the back of the children’s magazines they had in the doctors’ offices of our youth? You had to find the things that were “wrong” in the picture? Well, we can play that now, with the picture below.

This table looks pretty enough, but there are several things that are not “perfect” about it.

And although some might be shocked, I totally didn’t worry about the imperfections because I wanted to be quick. And it’s a casual table setting.

Aaak – multiple table setting faux pas! Let’s talk about 7 of them.

What’s wrong

• #1 – Asymmetrical place settings
• #2 – Really old flowers
• #3 – Knife placement all wonky
• #4 – Munched-up tabletop
• #5 – Tiny dinner fork
• #6 – Non-matching knife
• #7 – Plate totally off center

We’ll talk about these, but here’s the thing – nobody really cares! My neighbors were coming over to have a fun dinner and spend time with us.

The few minutes it took to use chargers, cloth napkins, and flowers elevated a boring old dinner table into a pretty-looking casual table setting that let my guests know I wanted to give them something special.

So with that disclaimer, let’s talk about these, and how they either don’t matter, or how you can make them work.

Things we don’t care about in a casual table setting

Number 1 is kind of funny. You know in all the tablescape photos, they always have a balanced number of place settings. But a lot of times, I have an uneven number of guests!

Sometimes I center the “extra” place setting on one side of the table to try to make a more balanced look. (Alternatively, you could set an extra place that nobody sits at, but that has its own problems.)

But in this case, we just didn’t care – we were all about eating. Plus, I could put the wine coasters in that space instead!

What else we don’t care about

Numbers 3 and 7 don’t really matter either. And unless you’ve got a serious eagle eye, you might not have even noticed them. I doubt if any of our guests looked too closely at the table setting before they sat down and started digging in to our fabulous street tacos.

Number 4 is something I hear about all the time. ie: “My table is old and banged up and looks awful! I can’t even have people for dinner, much less set a pretty table!” Honestly, your guests don’t care about that either. Especially with a casual table setting.

I could have given our old table a quick touch up or used a tablecloth, but it totally wasn’t necessary.

How to make things work

Now, for number 2, I have a little trick that will sometimes get more mileage out of your flowers. These, you can see, are old. They’re losing their color and looking a little wilty. I would usually have moved them along to their ultimate compost destiny, but I wanted some flowers on the table. And I didn’t have a lot of time, right?

This trick works best with bushier flowers like these alstroemeria. What I did was take them out of the tall vase they were in previously, and cut them very short.

I’ve found that if you rinse the stems and put them in a very low vase, you can often get a couple more days out of them. It took me all of 3 minutes. (Of course, I did have my vase and clippers very handy!)

And finally, numbers 5 and 6 are a classic way to keep the look of your table, even if you don’t have all matching pieces. The flatware I wanted to use to create the most “Taco-y” look for our table was this brushed gold. But I only have service for four.

So I gave myself a (very small) salad fork instead of a dinner fork, and used a gold knife from a different set.

I was the only one who had to use the non-matching pieces, and the table still looked cohesive. If I’d wanted to give it more of an “I really meant that” look, I could have alternated patterns at each setting. Either way of course, is just fine.

The fast and fun casual table setting

So that’s our amusing look at some of the things we can make allowances for in our casual table settings. And of course you know – and knew from the beginning I’m betting – that the whole point of entertaining at home is to have fun.

We could have just sat at a bare table with paper napkins and had a wonderful time. But the few extra minutes I spent adding a couple elegant touches, elevated our street taco feast and made my guests feel special.

I know that, because they all exclaimed about how I always set such a lovely table! I didn’t point out the things that were “wrong.” I just giggled softly to myself, and picked up my tiny little fork!

What do you think about “casual” tables? Let us know in the comments – we’re all dying to know! 🙂

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This post includes affiliate links for your shopping convenience. If you click on a link and end up buying anything from that site within 24 hours, I get a small commission with no extra cost to you. It’s a Win-Win, and helps cover the cost of publishing Mantel and Table. (You can read the whole disclosure policy here.) Thanks so much for shopping with me!

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THis Post Shared With

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• Fabulous Friday 05.13.22 – Hosted by Peacock Ridge Farm
• Tablescape Thursday 08.03.23 – Hosted by Between Naps on the Porch