What do you put in the middle of your tables

[crackadawn]

I've a long wooden table and never mastered what I should be putting in the middle. Flowers in a vase looks lost. Tried a big candle that's naf too. It's 10 foot long so needs something bigger I think

table runner plus 2 or 3 vases/plants/candles

When I had a large dining table, I used to go gothic, with black cobweb lace tablecloth, candelabra and glass domes with wax fruit, black flowers or birds in them. Add a couple of skull tea light holders and a marble look bust and there you go. Wouldn't suit everyone, but good for Halloween. 🎃

Currently have this. Usually a big plant on a runner.

Do you mean for when you're eating off it - in which case all the food.

if you mean for decoration for when it's not being used for eating, then ours has a bowl of fruit in the middle of it.

Laundry, box of miscellaneous crap.

On the rare occasions it's actually clutter free, a fruit bowl.

if one vase of flowers isn't working, try three. Or pot plants on a mat.

Currently a large vase filled with autumnal colour from the garden and hedges (twigs, berries, etc) sat on a log slice. It works with a large table if you scale up. I tend to place it at one end as the arrangement is fairly wide. If I'm dressing the table, I usually add a runner with multiple candlesticks as the starting point and then build on that.

The cat.
He puts himself there and shows me the paw when I suggest otherwise.

Bowl of fruit

Paperwork.

I just put a big vase of flowers usually, with a big bowl of fruit. But I do have a huge and beautiful hand thrown plate which I use if I need to make a good first impression - for dinner parties or estate agents.

Usually the table has other stuff on it anyway - newspapers or books, so the flowers don't look stranded, but ikwym - they almost look worse if the table is really tidy.

That is the purrfect centrepiece.

Nothing. I love it clear and clean.
otherwise, a jigsaw and the dog 🙈

The Duchess of Devonshire once used hens. And a piglet.

I would have flowers in the middle then two candles either side a distance away for a table that big. It would fill the space better.

My table is only 6ft and we have a simple candelabra in the middle.

Napkins, candle & cutlery in a small pot. It’s a kitchen table not a fancy dining room one.

I have a napkin holder, a pepper grinder, a salt box and a chilli shaker. Things we use every time we eat. Definitely no tall things - I can't be doing with tall things in the middle of a table!

Usually five bud vases with a few cheap flowers in, dotted along the table. Or a single huge arrangement - it needs height to not be lost on a large table.

Came here to say this.

There was an MP who kept a tarantula on his desk. Called Boris.

Bowl for the car keys to go into

Large flattish fruit bowl. Candlestick(s). Metal trivets for hot pans. A pile of navy napkins in silver napkin rings. A water carafe. Last weekend’s newspaper. Lego bits and plastic fidgets. Several books (adult and kids so I can’t even preach at the kids to move them). Our 4yo’s craft from school. Half open Amazon/vinted parcels.

At the moment, a potting tray, several plants, a variety of plant food, insecticide and fungicide and an array of bonsai pots.

It doesn't always look like that!

When the table is tidy, there is usually a set of placemats in a pile in the middle with salt & pepper pots on it, occasionally a fruit bowl as well, and sometimes a scented candle (unlit unless actually sitting at the table so can remove cats' tails from its proximity).