Behind the Design: Tiers of Joy

One of the most important lessons in Interior Design is examining the room's layout and creating a design that works best in that space. This may include a number of factors such as the height, scale, and flow of the room. I've found that the same principles also apply to table-scapes design. The most alluring and awe-inspiring table designs adhere to some of the most basic design industry principles of balance, proportion, scale, etc. Understand all of the principles, methods and terms can be a little overwhelming but I've developed a few simple techniques for planning and creating a table layout using these principles that can be as easy as 1, 2, 3... "Tiers" that is. This one works for both low and tall centerpieces and it begins with you looking at the table's surface and switching on your imagination.

Let's think about word "table-scape", a fairly new term that has gained popularity in the last few years but is most often thought of as the "landscape of the table". But let's not dwell on that right now. I'd like you to visualize a peaceful, lush country landscape instead. You are not on a paved road but a beautiful, rolling green field. In the distance you see a very tall hill and you are slowly moving towards it. Suddenly the hill appears taller. You realize it's more of a small mountain as you draw near it's base. More than likely the mountain doesn't just shoot out of the ground into the sky instead, you'd probably see tall grass, rocks, tree stumps, foliage, lots of trees and other elements of various heights gradually leading your eyes up the mountain. Next image pulling yourself back... further and further. Now envision the surface of a table. A well designed table-scape will reflect the same design principles we see in nature and just as the field transistioned into a tall mountain the surface of the table may consist of many tiers or zone that transition your eye long it's surface.

Tier 1:
This is the most exterior surface, the area in front of the guests. You could consider this the flattest part of a landscape but as you recall, natural landscapes are not perfectly flat. This is the place where items like napkins, silverware, chargers, glassware, guest place markers, and other small decorative accents will make here home. It's the beginning of your eye's journey.

Tier 2:
This is most overlook (and under-designed) portion of the table and can truly define the flow of the table. I'm referring to the area between the guest's place-setting and the table's centerpiece. This area should actually have two goals. The first is to be a "bridge" - creating a consistent visual flow from the guest to the center of the table. This area should have elements designed specifically to tie the two areas together. The second goal is to create a second level (or height) on the table's visual surface of the table. In our earlier mountain-side landscape scenario this would be the area slightly higher that the grass were shrubs or even trees started to draw your eyes upward. These elements should be slight lower than the centerpiece and in the case of tall centerpieces, they should also create a transitional flow up-toward. Often times I see the mistake of very little height variation from the guests place-setting and the centerpiece (example: a centerpiece on a mirror surrounded by a few tealight or votive candles). Unless the table-scape was designed to take scale in mind the centerpiece looks like it was simply "plopped" on the table with very little thought to the flow of the table. As a result it can be very visually jarring. Placing decorative items that are at a slightly higher level than the place-setting and lower level than the height of the centerpiece will prevent this common mistake.

Tier 3:
Last tier is the centerpiece or the focal point of the table. Every element of the first two tiers should be designed to complement the design of the centerpiece. The same way an opening act should lead up to the fail performance. Even if it is a slow centerpiece it should still be the tallest or most prominent design of the table.

Hope you find this method useful. Feel free to email me with your feedback, I'd love to hear what you think! Cheers!