Welcoming January

When it comes to taking down Christmas decorations after the holiday, I have found that there are two schools of thought. There are the people who, when the clock strikes midnight on Christmas Day, already have half of the ornaments off the tree; and then there are the people who keep it up through Epiphany and (Horrors!) beyond. I am of the former camp. I consider it a personal failure if I don’t have all of the decorations down, everything put away, and not a speck of red in the house by the morning of New Year’s Eve. This year I beat that goal by a day. Needless to say that it made me proud.

Because of all of the bold colors of Christmas, I like a neutral palette for the next month or so, generally up until Valentine’s Day when I bring out the pink and red. Having stripped the tables of their entire holiday decor, I set to work on what I always refer to as the “winter hutch.” Here’s what it looks like for the New Year.

 

I have recently come to embrace gray, so I have added it to the hutch. Because of my love of plants and the natural world, no matter the holiday, the hutch always has a touch of green, as you can see here in the Bordallo Pinheiro cabbage leaf chargers; they are a permanent fixture.

 On top of them are the white plates in the Blanc Amelie pattern from Maison Versailles. I love these plates because not only do they have wonderful, curvy edges, but a white on white raised pattern. These are topped with Pfaltzgraff salad plates a part of their “Gia” pattern. (I have recently become very impressed with Pfaltzgraff because they are selling place settings of dishes in different colors and patterns so that you can easily build your own plate stack with just one purchase.)

  These are topped off with an adorable Mottahede pot de crème.

I like to mix modern with antique, so have placed an inherited sugar spoon on top of a modern white ceramic a fruit dish.

 

Rae Dunn "Nibble" plates (personal faves) rest atop a new set of glazed gray stoneware bowls.

On the other side of the hutch I have a white pottery barn tureen, flanked by rustic black stoneware, simple salt and pepper shakers, and one of my new favorite serving dishes shaped like oyster shells. They are wonderful dipping bowls, but are absolutely superb for serving coquille Saint Jacques.

  By the time this posts, I will have no doubt have swapped one or two things as the mood hits. After all, isn’t that part of the fun?

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