The Summer season is in full swing – and the time is right for what I cherish most about my summer weekends: an intimate Sunday outdoor lunch with friends—languorous, long and easy. What better way to down load from social festivities and refuel for the week to come?
Imagine a table for twelve set in the center of this spectacular lawn of a residence we worked on in Salt Lake, landscaping by Garr Campbell.
Devoid of the oft times critical expectations of the creative genius of your hosting prowess, the Sunday outdoor lunch can allow you to truly have fun. You can enjoy and share the garden you’ve labored over, that view you love, that porch or deck you never use, or that arbor where your trumpet vine is blooming its head off. For another treat, try choosing an unpredictable level spot to move your table, maybe on the grass under the shade of your oak. You’ll experience those fragrant breezes that we long for when snow’s on the ground…..and since it’s noontime, the soft grass won’t be swarming with no-see-ums nipping at your ankles.
Now de riguer of de moment, al fresco dining has, of course, risen to soaring heights with Persian carpets unfurled, Baccarat crystal chandeliers hooked onto unsuspecting maple trees, and Chippendale chairs be-smattered with casbah cushions surrounding be-silkened and be-poufed tables. (Ah, we decorators can have fun!)
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- Speaking of dining al fresco, here’s a setting I did on our back porch for my friend Susan’s birthday party – a summery profusion of pinks and whites.
My Sunday lunch image, however, leans toward a trimmer feel ; tablecloths always look fresh outdoors—white tablecloths of course.
Or you might revisit those wonderful 50’s tablecloths in retro colors of newly washed sky blue, Italian reds and lemon yellows. Purchase them as large as possible as they were never made for our currently large tables and they’ll still hang down a minimal distance.
Overly draped tables simply look too sweaty at this time of year. Cheerful vintage cloths allow you the ease of using white china and napkins, though cobalt blue water glasses would be stunning tossed in.
Anything blue and white, of course, makes summer al fresco lunching an event worth photographing. Just take, for instance, the covers and contents of many of our recent shelter magazines. Blue and white, available in so many iterations, remains forever fresh and cool. My friend Patsy uses provincial blue and white crockery that plants you firmly in the south of France. Designer Scott Hickman frosts his summer tables with Spode English transferware, whose lacy pictorials in blue and white ratchet up the outdoor formality. Vintage and antique china will always be smaller in scale ,which is perfect for a luncheon where quality trumps quantity any day.
I use my Sunday lunches to pull out the fussiest of my inherited china because outside it always looks loose and special versus inside where it can appear staid and stiff. (Recall the fig luncheon in the film, “Women in Love.”) And of course, according to Scott Hickman, “Life is too short for plastic—always use china.”
Glassware, especially cut crystal, catches the sun light and can appear as if you’ve set your table with diamonds. Filled with ice water and a wonderful light, crisp white wine, your glistening glassware will elevate the festive mood. Colorful napkins as background to antique silverware add even more zest to the table. But then, there is nothing as classic as freshly starched and ironed white linen napkins.
Flowers can be kept to a minimum as the food and the visual bounty beyond the table are the real leading players. The casual hydrangea and Queen Anne’s lace arrangement, kept low, is forever welcoming. My friend, Patsy, places a secondary table nearby for “help-yourself” pitchers of tea, water and bottles of wine. Here you can exercise your flower power and add a more elaborate cut flower arrangement—flowers selected from your garden beyond—to link the settings. With less pressure for you, Sunday lunch al fresco always provides a memorable moment. A beautifully set outdoor table, a salad niçoise, a French baguette and fresh raspberries and peaches for dessert all add up to a Summer Sunday afternoon sent directly from heaven….
