If you came of age in the 21st century, there is a good chance you lack basic skills once viewed as necessary for homemaking and civility. Women who did not spend adolescence carefully contributing to a hope chest may be overwhelmed by the many parts and pieces needed to make a house a home. Registering at a big box store is just not the same.
Thankfully, there are people like Leila Lawler, Auntie Leila of Like Mother, Like Daughter, who take it upon themselves to “preserve the collective memory” and spell out for us things that used to come as naturally to us as breathing. What is it that you put on a table to prepare for a civilized meal? There is a detailed answer!
Auntie Leila has a lot to say about special occasions with helpful pictures accompanying. What is perhaps even more helpful are her remarks on the everyday table. She notes: “I find that with children, a tablecloth offers too much scope for pulling, yanking, spilling… and the obvious laundry pressure is too much. I like a wipeable surface but I also wanted it to be beautiful, and this table works great for me.”
For people with a table that can be left bare, she goes on with some tips: “If you find an older table with a worn finish, I recommend sanding the top and then finishing it with beeswax — you can stain it first if you want to (and that is remarkably easy to do!), but the wax will slightly darken it if you like the color. My den coffee table got this treatment and it’s amazingly waterproof now. The beeswax is easy to re-apply and quite wipeable. I do not recommend painting the top of your table — paint will inevitably chip, and you will start to have that annoyed feeling that things are grubby…”
Such simple observations but so helpful to the untutored. Having inherited a lovely old table that we could not possibly leave exposed to the wear and grime of daily meals, I had spent years bumbling about in the world of tablecloths. The need for a wipeable surface with small children is essential, so I tried adding placemats, but it just became so excessive.
Leila’s observations about the sturdy, easily wiped down surface sparked in my mind a vision of an impermeable oil cloth. I knew they were not all shiny, ugly plastic ones. A holistically-minded friend had a beeswax coated table cloth, but that seemed unattainable for me. But was it? Following Leila’s advice to endeavor for a wipeable surface I did some research and found some exquisite specimens shipped from France on Etsy that are not some hideous, crinkly plastic affair.
Now, finally, the table can be cleared fully, wiped easily, and made ungrubby between meals. Not that it always is, but it can be easily. A delicate and tasteful pattern has elevated our dining room used for all meals and eliminated the constant negotiations of which tablecloth and do we use placemats and how will it ever be clean for more than three minutes?? Less on the table you use every day is just easier.
A rather wrinkled but dependable French tablecloth with a charming pattern.
