Make A Great Kraft Paper Tablecloth

In the right hands, cheap Kraft paper can be the thing that turns a dinner table from plain to poetic.

DO IT YOURSELF | If you want to host a long table dinner this summer but don’t have enough matching tablecloths (or matching tables for that matter) to create an attractive, cohesive setting, Kraft paper can be a lifesaver.

What Brown Can Do For You

A giant roll of the ubiquitous brown stuff in the hands of someone with a talent for graphic presentation can be the element that ties a dinner party’s look together. In the instance pictured here, the host wrapped several dissimilar tables in brown paper (taping it down at the ends) and pushed them together to form a row.

She then used a marker pen to make an outline of each dinner plate and the utensils on either side of it. Inside the circle she wrote each guest’s name and outside of it she added lines from a poem or an aphorism that in some way connected her with the diner.

The overall effect of a tabletop filled with loosely made circles ringed in verse is show stopping; it’s an effect made even more magical with the introduction of simple food presented with artistic flair. —Annabel Lee