Proper Dining Room Table Setting

Whether you're serving an elaborate four-course dinner on your best china to twenty of your closest friends, or just a simple family dinner on a Tuesday night, setting the dining table properly is a welcome touch. In addition to demonstrating your style and manners, a proper table setting also helps the meal go smoothly. Does this Spark an idea?

Importance

If you've ever accidentally sipped from your neighbor's water glass during a dinner party, you know the importance of properly setting the table. When the utensils and glasses are placed on the table correctly, diners can be confident that the knife they are using or the water glass they're drinking from is meant for them. A proper table setting is also designed to help diners use the correct utensil for each course. Utensils should be placed in order of use, from the outside in, so the dinner fork, the last one to be used, is closest to the dinner plate.

Casual Meals

How to set a dining room properly depends on the formality of the meal. For a casual meal, place the fork and napkin on the left of the plate, and the knife and spoon to the right of the plate, in that order. The drinking glasses go above the knife and spoon and the bread and butter plate, if necessary, above the fork. However, with a casual meal, you can also get creative with the utensil placement. For example, if you want to fold the napkin creatively and place the utensils in the folded cloth on top of the plate, that is acceptable.

Formal Meals

If you are serving a formal meal for a holiday or dinner party, the proper dining room table setting is far more elaborate. The general placement of the utensils is the same, with forks on the left and knives and spoons on the right. However, in a formal setting, everything should be evenly spaced on the table, with the centerpiece in the exact center of the table and all of the place settings and utensils evenly balanced. Formal dining table settings also require more utensils than a casual meal; for example, if you are offering a fish course, the fish fork goes on the left, then the salad fork and dinner fork. If you're serving a shellfish course, the oyster fork goes on the right, next to the soup spoon. Depending on how many courses and what you are serving, a formal place setting includes dinner, fish, salad and butter knives--always placed with the cutting blades facing the dinner plate. The formal place setting also includes a charger, or decorative plate that holds the first course, and up to five glasses for water, wine, champagne, and sherry.

General Rules

In general, the way you set the table for a meal depends on what you are serving and the space available. For example, if you aren't serving fish or shellfish, you do not need to include the special utensils for those courses. For a casual meal, you can serve salad on the dinner plate if the main entree does not include sauce; the same rule applies to bread. Avoid placing more than three of any type of utensil on the table at once, with the exception of the oyster fork. Bring the utensils in with the fourth course if necessary.