When my now-husband and I moved into a new house a couple of years ago — a little Craftsman in Silver Lake that could finally fit a long, grown-up dining table — I was thrilled. My dream of owning the Ilse Crawford for De La Espada Together Table was at last at hand. After my mom offered to buy it for us as a very generous housewarming gift, and after consulting with a friend from the brand, who assured me that the solid-wood tables would last the longest because they can be endlessly sanded and re-oiled when things inevitably go awry, I picked the Danish oiled walnut, conveniently matching the bench I had scored at a sample sale at the Future Perfect months earlier.
Never meet your heroes, they say! I was terrified to touch my table, and became more of a monster than usual, insisting on a haphazard assortment of placemats and coasters with every use. One day, on a whim, I ordered a $24 lace-trimmed clear plastic tablecloth from Amazon, so we could use the table with no inhibitions but still see and experience the piece of furniture that I probably just should have waited to be an actual adult to own. For the record, I frankly have no clue where the completely random idea of the plastic tablecloth came from. Some things just present themselves, I suppose.
Inevitably, whenever anyone walks into our house, the first thing they comment on is the tablecloth. No matter that the table underneath it is far more pedigreed, or that through my job (I’m a PR consultant in design), I’ve been lucky to acquire some genuinely special pieces over the years. So in a house that has actual collectible design pieces — by Minjae Kim, BZIPPY, Blue Green Works, LA Door, Piet Hein Eek, Ross Hansen, Nik Gelormino, Jordan Macdonald, and Fabien Capello — people just want to know about the tablecloth. Friends who have stayed at our house while we are out of town send texts like, “Your home is a museum! The Gerrit Rietveld granny chair?? Second fave after the tablecloth.” Another friend promptly ordered six for a 40th birthday she was hosting. It is, I guess, the best piece in the house, and maybe the best piece I am destined to own.
So what is it about the tablecloth? A lot of people think it’s Gohar World, so that’s maybe something. (Shout out to the Gohars, who have created such a strong association with lace that people think they are the only ones who do fun lace, when in fact a brand named STROJNY on Amazon also does this.) It’s practical and pretty, which makes me think daily that maybe we can, in fact, have it all. It eliminates anxiety (just about the table though) and has allowed me to see into a future with a child at my dining table, everyone enjoying our meal, spilling everywhere, not thinking about the furniture. Did you come over for dinner and we spilled olive oil and wine all over the table? Whatever, who cares. Did I drop a pair of scissors point down while I was opening a package? Whatever. Did candle wax drip absolutely everywhere? Whatever! And it’s a fun little conversation piece.
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