Choosing Kitchen and Dining Ware
When you move into a new home, decorating your kitchen and dining room is top priority for comfortable living. Choosing good home dinnerware is an important part of the decorating process. In addition to being decorative, dinnerware must also be practical. It needs to be easy to handle, easy to clean and easy to coordinate with all your other kitchen and dining room food service ware. Couples select their dinnerware and utensils to put on a wedding registry so that all the pieces they receive for gifts match the overall design of their new home. Everyday dishes -- the ones used for casual dining during three meals a day -- are typically the first ones you want to purchase. After you have a full set of this type of plates, bowls and serving dishes, it's time to concentrate on a set formal home dinnerware.
Step 1
Select a simple pattern for your everyday home dinnerware. You may fall in love with the dishes that have large pink flowers on them, but after a year or more of eating off those plates three times a day, the novelty will wear off. Instead, choose a dinnerware that is plain, to show off the colorful food on the plates instead of having a bold pattern compete with the visual appeal. You may want to buy all your plates, bowls and a few serving pieces all in white or calming earth tones, then accent your tableware with colorful serving bowls and platters. Alternatively, buy dinner plates that are all one solid color, like blue or green or red, then purchase the remaining salad plates and bowls in a contrasting solid color to add interest to your table settings.
Step 2
Choose a popular style of home dinnerware that is available widely across the country so that people who want to buy you a housewarming gift or a wedding gift can easily find pieces to purchase. Several well-known manufacturers sell their best brands in department stores, kitchen supply retailers and through online markets. Once you have all the pieces of dinnerware together so that you can serve meals to your family and guests, you may decide to get a second set of dishes. Many individuals and couples choose a china pattern or ironstone for their second set of dishes. These are luxurious pieces that are not used all the time. They are reserved for formal meals, for entertaining company, or for special occasions when only the best will do.
Step 3
Pick home dinnerware that is safe to use in the microwave and that is also labeled as dishwasher safe. Even if you are starting out and don't have a dishwasher, you may someday in the future and it would be a shame to have to start over again stocking your plates and bowls. Verify the home dinnerware that can be used in a microwave is also safe for the freezer. Dishes with all these qualities make your life more simple. It saves an enormous amount of time to take plated food out of the freezer, put it in the microwave to thaw and cook, then put the plates into the dishwasher for cleaning. Read all the labels and check the manufacturers website for precautions before you make your final decision on home dinnerware.
