The accepted wisdom is that white plates display food to its best advantage. Colors pop vibrantly and there’s no conflict between the color of the food and the color of the plate.

But all white can be, well. . . boring. And boring is not pretty.

The trick is to combine white dishes with colored accessories on your tabletop. There are lots of opportunities to inject some color – tablecloth, runner, napkins, placemats, flowers, etc.

I’m digging this earthy tabletop at Pottery Barn. They’ve combined some strategic wooden pieces with the contemporary white dishes to great effect. Look how warm and inviting it is. It just feels so comfortable, I’m ready to plop right down and dig in!

Here are some other fun items I found that would work for a warm, earthy tabletop: I love it! I think this would be a pretty easy look to achieve inexpensively. Look for wooden, wicker, linen and other natural elements (maybe some things from your garden?) to combine with your everyday dishes for your own warm, earthy tabletop.