The Secrets of Beautiful Dining Setup: Table Accessories and How to Use Them

It’s not always enough to own beautiful plates, exquisite glassware, and very expensive cutlery to make your table setting for a specific occasion truly refined and stylish. When you feel like something is missing in your table space, that’s when you should reach for table accessories. Available in many forms, these accessories support proper dish presentation, enhance variety in serving styles, and contribute to the desired dining atmosphere. We asked the pros, the MDMAISON team, to give us a bit more info on this topic. And they provided us with an overview from which we put together this article.

Table Accessories: Taking a Focused Look

Table accessories are those little “touches” that turn an ordinary dinner into an aesthetic and comfortable experience. Even in a casual setting, such details signal thoughtful organization and communicate the host’s cultivated sense of style. If you browse online or visit the websites of popular tableware manufacturers, you’ll find plenty of interesting pieces in a wide range of designs, and thanks to the variety of materials available, they can easily fit into any setting. We’d like to share why adding these pieces to your table really matters, and we’ve put together a curated selection of standout examples and collections from leading manufacturers to inspire you.

Specialized Accessories for the Presentation 

The first way these original pieces can help us is with the serving and presentation of dishes. In fact, there is a range of items specifically designed for certain products and the way they are meant to be enjoyed. When we serve meat dishes, we can’t imagine the table without proper sauce boats, heated stands, and steak knives designed with the right blade geometry.  The same goes for fish—to really enjoy it, we always make sure to have specialized fish cutlery and cute little lemon squeezers or mini-sauce boats on hand. For vegetables, it’s best to use serving tongs or slotted spoons so the texture stays right and any extra moisture can drain away. Even when it comes to dessert, we rely on a dedicated set of accessories — dessert forks and spoons, cake servers, and elegant stands for pastries. Well-known brands create full collections made for specific foods, helping guests feel at ease and showing that the host truly understands dining etiquette. More than anything else, they define the level of service and highlight respect for the culinary arts. Here are our examples:

• From Villeroy & Boch, it’s worth checking out the Pasta Passion collection made for serving pasta, as well as the BBQ Passion line with plates that have sauce sections, juice grooves, and ceramic skewer holders that help keep food warm.
• Italian brand Sambonet offers a wide selection within their Living series, ranging from professional meat and spaghetti tongs to specialized seafood tools, including lobster forks, snail tongs, and fish servers.
• The renowned German house Robbe & Berking offers an extensive range of collections, but we recommend the Martelé Barbecue set — an elite outdoor meat-serving ensemble featuring hand-hammered silver accessories, including grill tongs and stands that protect the table from heat.
• Alessi from Italy presents Dressed dessert accessories by Marcel Wanders. These include cake stands, various items, and forks with a baroque pattern on the back, or the minimalist Itsumo series by Naoto Fukasawa for serving whole fish and vegetable compositions.
• From the Italian brand Mepra, you might want to check out the Due Ice Oro collection for serving cheese in a beautiful matte gold finish, as well as the Stoccolma series made for layered desserts and fruit sorbets. 
• If you’re into Georg Jensen, check out the Alfredo pieces for bread or the classic Bernadotte set for poached eggs and French treats.

Accessories as Additional Serving Elements

You have to admit, it’s much more enjoyable to sprinkle freshly grated Parmesan over your pasta yourself from an elegant cheese server than to have it added to the plate before it’s served. We truly believe it’s the little things that change everything — they give the table that lived-in charm and subtle restaurant sophistication, just like the right accessories elevate a personal look. This category includes containers for spices, seasonings, and liquid dressings, vessels for special flavor additions (such as a butter dish, honey pot, or mustard jar), as well as auxiliary items (such as napkin dispensers, cutlery rests, etc.). If you’d like to have these refined details and present them in a sophisticated way, here’s what we recommend:

• The distinguished house of Christofle offers the Empire-style Malmaison collection alongside the contemporary Vertigo line by Andrée Putman, both encompassing silver spice sets, oil servers, and coordinated serving utensils.
• With the unique L’Objet, all the lines are simply mind-blowing, so pay attention to Han — salt and pepper sets featuring crystal glass set in brass with 24-karat gold plating. Or Haas Brothers — surreal accessories in the form of funny creatures (‘monsters’) made of porcelain and gold.
• The Danish brand Georg Jensen has its own bestsellers — the iconic Alfredo salt and pepper mills with an ergonomic design, as well as the Bloom oil and vinegar vessels inspired by the curved shape of cherry blossom petals.
• The elite Italian atelier Giobagnara can offer luxurious tall mills hand-wrapped in calfskin leather from the Otello collection, as well as spice sets and sauce boats from the Scala line crafted in marble and leather.
• The famous French Ercuis has Regards — a series ranging from elegant mustard pots to grated cheese containers with crystal inserts, made of silver-plated steel with an emphasis on clean lines. Or the Latitude collection in the Art Deco style.

Napkin Rings as a Separate Category of Accessories

Napkin rings aren’t just there to hold napkins — they’re like small pieces of jewelry that make the whole tablescape look more polished. In the premium segment, they are often crafted by hand, featuring precise hand polishing, engraving, inlays, and complex textured finishes. For these pieces, we often see materials like silver, gold plating, patinated brass, porcelain, crystal, mother-of-pearl, and even natural stone or enamel. Napkin rings can become very significant, fulfilling not only a functional purpose but also a decorative and aesthetic one. In fact, there are many manufacturers that specialize in such lines, and here are the ones we would recommend:

• The brand L’Objet became famous for exactly such rings; for example, the Stars collection made of brass, plated in 24-karat gold and encrusted with Swarovski crystals, or Coral, which hides a marine aesthetic in a luxury execution with gold on red and pink enamel.
• The brand Von Gern Home presents the Flow collection made from natural wood and vibrant resin, as well as the Pearl Cluster line crafted from pearls.
• Poltrona Frau, a subsidiary brand of Giobagnara, makes laconic steel rings wrapped in signature Pelle Frau leather with fine hand-stitching and premium finishing.
• With Kim Seybert, you can find the Zénith pieces created in collaboration with Baccarat, decorated with large crystals and hand-beaded embroidery. There is also the Desert line featuring a two-tone finish in gold and silver.
• The Baccarat crystal manufactory also has a special collection called Harcourt, where massive, perfectly clear crystal is fashioned into napkin rings.
• Joanna Buchanan also offers the Insects collection, with bold napkin rings shaped like dragonflies and bees, decorated with enamel and semi-precious stones such as amethyst and malachite. The Starburst pieces are just as eye-catching, designed to look like vintage brooches made from lapis lazuli, agate, and rose quartz set in gold-plated steel.

Why the Right Choice Matters

Even such small details need to be chosen carefully. Therefore, if you are planning to buy something like this, focus on your main set and the style of your tableware, because everything on the table should sound in unison. Still, a touch of eclecticism is also acceptable, as long as it remains within harmonious limits.

Also, consider the character of the material and the features of the decor, as well as the care requirements for them. Don’t ignore these pieces, because they can really raise the level of your table setting and bring that same special feeling you experience in elegant restaurants and formal events.