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Setting a
vintage vibe
Bring some personal style
to your dinner table
by embracing a touch
of creative anarchy
by
ashley gartland
Photography by Beth
Styling by shelly coon
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Nakamura
Sometimes we love the idea
of a West Elm-ified life: all serenity
and tastefulness, where everything
matches (look, Josh, even the napkin rings!). But a domestic landscape
like that can also feel too cookie-cutter — particularly when it comes to
dinnerware. Plain white china, massproduced bowls and department
store glasses are fine for Wednesday
dinners, but a buzz-worthy party
calls for a new approach … well, an
old one, actually. Going vintage with
your tableware lets you be as creative and personal with the table setting as you are with your food, and
it can be a fairly inexpensive way to
bring drop-dead chic to the party.
But what you don’t invest in dollars, you need to invest in time and
focus. We talked with design-savvy
Portland restaurant people, as well
as stylist Shelly Coon, for advice on
how to go vintage this season.
Becoming a true junker
Develop your sources:
Finding good vintage pieces takes
time, but fortunately many Portland shops streamline the scouting
by stocking well-edited collections
and one of a kind finds. Restaurateur Bruce Carey (Saucebox, Bluehour, 23Hoyt) relies on Northwest
thrift-circuit favorite William Temple House to help him expand his
collection. “William Temple House
tends to be good because stuff
moves quickly. And because of its
proximity to the West Hills, a lot
of fine things come through there,”
Carey says. Other reliable shops
in Carey’s rotation include the
Bernadette Breu Experience in
Southeast and Stars Antique Malls
in Westmoreland. By focusing your
scouting to antique-shop-loving
neighborhoods such as Sellwood
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Don’t be a slave to the original idea
This collection of Russel Wright dishes is a beautiful exemplar of midcentury design, all curves
and organic forms. You want to pass the sugar
just so you can hold the bowl. But if everything
on the table is Russel Wright, the table isn’t about
your style any more. Stylist Shelly Coon gives this
earth-toned grouping a more personal feel by
bringing in accents from beyond the Wright
Studio in New York. The naif floral patterns on
the plates and cups feel Finnish (and we love
anything Scandinavian), and the highball glasses
mix it up just a notch more, with modern motifs.
The mash-up works because the color palette is
unified, and the overall effect is more interesting
than textbook Wright alone.
If you’re mixing patterns,
really mix patterns
Stylist Shelly Coon was calling this set
The French Apartment, and indeed the
look captures the fancy molding, wornaway gilt and otherwise faded glamour
and chic of a flat in a maison particulier
in the 16th. We don’t think anything
matched in this group, and that was kind
of the point: If a few fancy golden
curlicues are good, then a ton of random
ones are even better. She kept the reins
on the rococo by limiting the color
palette and keeping the delicacy level
about the same — everything was fine
and fancy and just a little bit faded. The
jumble of flatware works the same way,
with “intriguing” and “patina” as the
guiding principles. MIX designer Reed
Darmon thought the patina part went
a bit too far, suggesting we get a tetanus
shot before using some of that stuff, but
he’s just a stick-in-the-mud.
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or Kalama, Wash., says stylist Coon, you
don’t have to traipse all over town to hit
a lot of stores.
Finally, don’t underestimate online
shopping. In addition to Goodwill and
estate sales, Evan Dohrmann of Little
Red Bike Cafe trolls Craigslist looking
for sellers. The site connected him with
a local woman who promptly sold him
pieces from her commercial restaurant
dishware collection.
Set shopping rules:
Plan to visit shops frequently. “Go once
a week if it’s convenient, because the selection changes daily,” Carey says. “And
shop alone. Shopping with other people
takes too long and is distracting. If I can
just pull over and run into the store to go
up and down the aisles, then things draw
my eye automatically.”
Build over time:
When you fall in love with a partial place
setting, snatch it up. Then fill in the
holes by shopping online at eBay or
www.replacements.com. “Replacements.
com is a terrific resource I’ve used when
I have a set of five bowls and need a
sixth. Often, they’ll have it,” says Carey.
Keeping the old stuff new
Wash with care:
Your investment in a vintage piece
might be minimal, but even cheap, old
pieces need attention if you want to
keep them around. Some vintage items
can withstand a trip through the dishwasher, particularly durable pieces such
as commercial restaurant plateware, says
Dohrmann. Glasses need care, however.
“Vintage glassware is an easy and cheap
way to add character to make your events
unique and talked about,” says collector
and mixologist Jamie Boudreau of Seattle’s Tini Bigs. But Boudreau only uses
dishwashers that don’t dry the glassware;
the extreme heat of the drying cycle isn’t
safe for fragile crystal pieces, he says, nor
for patterned glassware. When in doubt
with any piece, wash it by hand — it’s not
that much work.
Store it smart:
When it’s time to store your pieces postparty, a zippered china storage set is ideal
(albeit a little June Cleaver), but they can
be expensive. A quick online look showed
zipper covers for 12 four-piece place
settings costing anywhere from $25
(Target) to closer to $150 (WilliamsSonoma). Carey improvises instead: He
borrows a stack of white napkins from the
restaurant and puts one between every
plate or bowl before storing the stacks on
shelves. Boudreau slips glasses in protective sleeves then stores them in wineglass
moving boxes (the sleeves and boxes come
as a set).
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It’s OK to blend real and faux
Everything old is new again, as the saying goes,
and that’s definitely true for certain classic tableware designs. This gorgeous collection of Eva
Zeisel pottery is from the late ’50s and was
acquired over the last few years by MIX
designer Reed Darmon. But don’t be jealous
just because he was smart enough to start
collecting early. Crate & Barrel is reissuing
Zeisel’s “Century” design, and Royal Stafford
has “Century” and “One-O-One,” so you can
mix pieces from the new line with a precious
couple of originals. (Bauer Pottery also has a
new release of Russel Wright’s “American
Modern” line.) We’re always finding cool tabletop pieces with no particular pedigree — nor
age worthy of being called “vintage” — but they
have enough character to blend in with the bona
fide collectibles, and it’s all about the blend.
Sometimes naming
a mood is all it takes
This casual grouping came together
when stylist Shelly Coon started thinking “old issue of Sunset magazine.”
The idea was evocative but vague
enough to allow room to mix and match
like crazy. These pieces are from
disparate eras and sources (the plastic
cups, from Fred Meyer, were a lastminute addition from MIX editor
Martha Holmberg’s kitchen cupboard),
but together they express that bold,
sun-baked Western vibe, with a touch
of Mexico, a touch of Bohemian craft
and the promise of a mean margarita
just moments away.
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Avoiding the
yard-sale look
tablecloth he bought to go with batik
print napkins and funky pottery pieces.
Create a quiet backdrop:
Go for consistency:
In his restaurants, Carey sets a minimalist table using white tablecloths and napkins that allow attention-grabbing plates
to stand out. He’ll break this rule, however, if the linens work with the china,
rather than compete for attention, as
with an old brown and white linen
Bring cohesiveness to a grouping by using pieces that are similar in size. “I try
to ensure that all of the glassware is the
same size so that even though they’re all
different, there is some continuity,” says
Boudreau. Another way to hold the look
together is to stick with one era. “You
run the risk of setting a junky-looking
table” says Carey, if elegant china competes with handwrought pottery in one
spread. But you can mix matte-glazed
plates from the ’70s with a handmade
pottery vase from a separate collection
with fabulous results, because they likely
came from the same era so the feeling is
the same.
Balance risks with practical design:
Dohrmann prefers the mismatched look,
so he mixes and matches his pieces but
carries the same color family throughout
the table spread. “If you like it to be really cohesive, you have to look for sets,”
he says. “But I think if you stick to certain color schemes like all fall, spring or
summer colors, you can pull it [the mismatched look] off.” Coon, too, provides a
sense of unity with color. “I’ll choose two
different colors and then use patterned
pieces or different styles of pieces within
those colors,” she says, adding that she
typically restricts her palette to three
colors or less.
Pair the dish with the dishes:
The inspiration for a great menu can
actually start with the dishes — A Rat
Pack-era Champagne glass might inspire
a dressy cocktail party with finger food,
while old farmhouse crockery asks for a
hearty stew or chicken and dumplings.
And balance the look of the recipes with
the dishes they’ll be served in. Elaborate
cuisine needs simple, clean lines that won’t
detract from the food. If the food is really
simple, it can hang back and let the plate
speak. For example, a simple dessert like a
chocolate pot de crème is more suited to
a whimsical vintage dish than a spare and
elegant design. £
For where
to buy,
see Shop,
Page 72
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