Buffet Table Setting Tips - Setting up the Room

There's just a ton of buffet table setting advice on the web. All you have to do is a quick search-- soon you'll be overrun with advice on how to add height to your tables. Or how to arrange the dishes you'll be serving "just so." Or how to decorate the buffet table like this, or provide these plates, or arrange utensils so they're easy for your buffet guests to take with them.

And all of this is good advice. But before you can result any of it, you first have to know one very basic thing: how to set up a room for a buffet reception or supper party.

Table Chairs

But that's easy, you might say. Just chuck a table against the wall for the food, set some plates up on the end, and set up someone else diminutive table for desserts and drinks. Done. After all, how much could go into plainly arranging a room for a buffet dinner?

Buffet Table Setting Tips - Setting up the Room

Actually, more than you might think. The arrangement of the space in which the buffet is held affects the entire buffet-- a well-arranged room reduces spills, looks nice, and makes things easier on your guests. Want to get it right? Read on for three easy-to-follow tips on establishment a space for a buffet dinner.

1. Buffet Table Placement The first instinct of many hosts and hostesses of a buffet supper party or reception is to place the buffet table against the wall. This keeps it out of the way and allows more room for seating. But if you have sufficient space, the middle of the room is the best place for the buffet table. Why? Well, if you only have one buffet table setting, it allows equal way from both sides of the room. It also makes it easier to serve from both sides of the table, and allows mingling, snacking supper guests to chat together in closer proximity to the table. This works especially well for finger food buffets.

2. Length the Drinks Table. Sure, occasionally a plate is dumped over while a buffet dinner, but it's drinks you assuredly have to worry about. The best way to prevent nasty spills? Set the drinks table up across the room from the food buffet. This will keep traffic to a minimum, minimizing the chances of guest collisions and nasty drinks spills. As a bonus, it may also prevent guests from trying to juggle loaded supper plates in one hand and drinks in the other. They'll generally visit their table to drop off a plate of food before getting drinks, minimizing the chance of spillage. Even better, provide water and wine on the tables themselves, and make getting up to get a drink completely optional.

3. Know the Seating Arrangements. Unfortunately, most of us weren't blessed with tons and tons of space in which to set up a buffet table. And when space runs short, one of the first things to go is seating. If you don't have room for designated tables for your guests, chances are they'll have to perch on chairs, sofa-arms, or anyone piece of furniture they have handy. If this is the case, think of rearranging the dining area temporarily for your guests. Add extra end tables or Tv trays to the space, and move chairs and other seating closer to tables, shelves and other places for guests to rest cups, plates, elbows, whatever. There's nothing worse than being perched on the end of a chair with nowhere to place your drink so you can eat your dinner. Think of your guests. Even if that Tv tray looks silly in the middle of the room, put it there anyway.

Buffet Table Setting Tips - Setting up the Room

How a Glass Table Top Can extend the Life of Your Furniture

Many of us invest in quality pieces of furniture for our homes and offices that are intended to last a lifetime. The reality for most is that general wear and tear and scratches and dents are virtually unavoidable. But are they really?

A glass table top is a tried and tested way to safe wood furniture. It adds a tough, durable layer that doesn't overshadow the wood. Instead of furniture looking tired and shabby five years down the track, a glass table top keeps furniture looking just as fresh as the day you bought it.

Table Chairs

A Glass Table Top From The 21st Century

How a Glass Table Top Can extend the Life of Your Furniture

There have been many advances in glass table tops and glass shelving manufacturing over the past few years. No longer does the glass look like a thick obtrusive piece of material. Glass tops and glass shelving these days are thin, clear, and streamlined. The create direction dictates that a glass is virtually indiscernible and serves to heighten the wood not disguise it.

With this new technology meaning that glass tops blend in with your furniture, you could progress the uses of the table top to sideboards, dressing tables, desks, coffee tables and someone else other wood furniture in need of protecting.

Protection From Harsher materials

The main purpose of a glass top is protection. Because wood is an organic material, it is simply pliable and quite soft in comparison to harsher manmade materials. This means that daily items such as bowls, plates, staplers, and paperclips, can all leave wood furniture dented and scratched.

The advantage of protecting wood furniture from scratches and dents is that you don't need to pay for high-priced re-surfacing every few years. Short of outside your wood table in a diamond table top, a glass top is itself quite scratch resistant. This will mean that it will be many years before you need to replace the glass.

Child-Friendly Tables

Kids are a great part of everyone's life, but they do have a knack at testing their creative genius on the things that we don't want them to. No matter how many sheets of paper you put on the play table, it seems that crayons and markers look much better on the table itself! An easy and reasonable way to fix this is to setup a glass top on the play table. Being glass, markers, paint and crayons come right off. For stubborn marks, harsher chemicals can be used on glass than on wood.

Bring Out The Best Of Your Wood

An added advantage to putting glass tops on your furniture is that it of course enhances the look of the wood finish. Just like a glossy computer screen can make colors more vivid, a glass table top makes your wood grain appear richer and glossier. This can have a sure impact on the perceived value of your furniture as it can make lower quality wood grains appear more luxurious.

Whichever way that you look at it, a glass table top is a great speculation for longer lasting furniture.

How a Glass Table Top Can extend the Life of Your Furniture