Posh crockery

[4andAHalfBillion]

My current set is a nice enough Sainsbury's collection of blue and white crockery. A few bowls and plates have chips or are broken now so am looking for a replacement. Ideally porcelain but not plain white. Noting too pompous or pretentious but something that's a bit stylish. I've looked at JL, M&S etc but no joy. I quite like a rim but not gold or platinum / silver.

Where do I find these smart yet unpretentious and dishwasher proof dinner plates?

www.made.com/ppc/taryn-12-piece-porcelain-dinner-set-white-blue

Something like this maybe?

www.made.com/sulo-12-piece-whitewash-glazed-beaded-rim-dinner-set-off-white

Or these..

Only plain white for me, sorry!

Dunelm have a lot of choice

Denby is lovely, very durable and all made in England. The outlet section of their website has seconds, if you want to cut your costs - the imperfections are usually very slight indeed.

Emma Bridgewater is also worth the money and has a seconds section. They do also sell melamine plates, so check what you're buying, esp if it's under £15!

Portmeirion have a huge range and do a lot of deep discount sales as well as seconds. Some of their bigger lines, e.g. Sophie Conran, Water Garden are now made in China, but some lines are still made in Stoke-on-Trent, e.g. Botanic Garden and some Wrendale.

These places all have 15-20% discounts for signing up to their mailing lists, too.

It does cost more to buy crockery made in England, but it's so worth it. I will never buy the Chinese stuff from the department store lines again!

If you have tesco vouchers, they can be exchanged for denby sets if any interest you?

Forgot to mention Burleigh - if you want to push the boat out a bit with something more patterned, they are fab! Seconds are well worth checking out too. This is the factory where they film The Great Pottery Throwdown.

@MrsLCSofLichfield Those blue plates are really beautiful.

Denby every time. The last years.

They *

Another vote for Denby.

Don’t know how posh you want to go but I like Divertimenti’s stuff:-

www.divertimenti.co.uk/collections/dinnerware

And Anthropologie has some interesting styles:-

www.anthropologie.com/en-gb/kitchen-dinnerware

We got a Denby set with wedding gift vouchers (some 12 years ago!). Most of it is still going strong. Only casualties have been dropped onto hard tile floors, no chips! We recently bought some more using Tesco vouchers, it converts the voucher so you get about £1.50 for every 50p voucher I think it was. Got 6 new bowls and only paid £4.50 postage!

I got two sets of a porcelain dinner service a couple of years ago from Creatable on wayfair:

www.wayfair.co.uk/brand/bnd/creatable-b9945.html

I think they’re a German manufacturer. Anyway, made in Europe and the quality is excellent. Mine are plain white, but with a nice pattern. They have loads of ranges in some lovely colours anyway. I’m tempted by some of those colourful bowls, but I already have far more dinnerware than I use.

If I ever won the lottery I’d get myself down to Liberty:

www.libertylondon.com/uk/department/home/tabletop/tableware/

Ocado have got a lovely Mikasa 12 piece dinner set in Reactive Blue. It's said to be very hard wearing, and it has a lovely shape & glaze. It's in the sale ATM for less than £45.

@Beebumble2

Denby every time. The last years.

But so do most things don't they?

We have 2 sets from Ikea and Wilkos that are about 25 years old and we still have most of them. The whole lot probably cost less than a couple of plates from Denby.

But about 3 years ago I bought some Denby in a Black Friday sale and it was still alarmingly expensive at half price and I'm not impressed to be honest. A couple of pieces have chipped and they're all scratched to buggery. Plus they take up a ridiculous amount of space in the dishwasher.

Thank you for the links and suggestions. Unfortunately none of them is right for me, I am uncharacteristically fussy about dining sets. The Mikasa comes close, but ideally porcelain rather than stoneware and I also didn't like the asymmetric designs.

I'm eyeing up Sophie Conran's range. Any thoughts on these?

www.sophieconran.com/ambrosia-dining-collection

www.sophieconran.com/navy-pomona-dining-collection

or M&S

www.marksandspencer.com/12-piece-hampton-fine-china-dinner-set/p/hbp22461206?color=CREAMMIX&prevPage=srp

I don't mind investing a small bit in it. Our last crockery from Sainsbury's has lasted years and, while not exactly super smart, has been hardy, useful and not too unstylish.

@4andAHalfBillion those Sophie Conran ones are lovely, prefer those over the M&S ones.

Which one of those @covetingthepreciousthings? The Ambrosia with the flowery pattern or the Pomona with the blue rims?

Denby, Denby, Denby!

Its much more robust that a lot of other stuff. The ranges last for years.

Its expensive yes. However you can get seconds which are bloody good (you can't tell) for a discount. All ours are seconds.

I genuinely don't know anyone who has Denby who doesn't swear by it.

Love both the Sophie conran sets. I would probably mix and match if budget allowed, but I can't help myself!

Love both the Sophie conran sets. I would probably mix and match if budget allowed, but I can't help myself!

I wondered about mixing and matching, I like the idea!

Look at Villeroy and Boch - Pricey , but I have had mine years, only broken things due to stupidity , and I use it everyday , lots of different designs :)