How to tablescape like a pro for £10 or less

Tablescaping remains huge news in interiors circles (read: Instagram) and yet when Christmas comes in a cost of living crisis, spending money on trussing up your table can feel like too expensive an enterprise. Until now.

If you’re budgeting this year, we have heaps of ideas to dress up your table on the cheap – from the most expensive-looking budget buys to the experts’ top DIY tricks. And who better to help your table win best dressed this Christmas than craft expert and all-round legend Christine Leech, co-author of Zero Waste Christmas? Here’s how… 

‘Do you have a Christmas tree? Is it in the corner of your room?’ asks Christine. ‘If the answer is yes, cut the branches at the back – they won’t be missed!’ Lay them down the centre of your table for a fresh take on the table runner. ‘If you have an artificial tree, you can usually unclip a couple of branches and use those instead,’ says Christine.

‘I made this one using a charity shop bowl, a John Lewis ANYDAY Dine Coupe Dinner Plate and some John Lewis ANYDAY Pillar Candles,’ says Christine, ‘and lots of fruit!’ Want to zhuzh them up? Step this way…

To really give your centrepiece some festive flair, Christine recommends gold leaf. ‘I paid £5 for 100 sheets,’ she says. ‘You can literally gold leaf anything – champagne flutes, fruit, jam jars… just don’t gold leaf any areas that go too near to your mouth.’ How do you apply gold leaf? 1) Brush the item with watered-down PVA glue. 2) Leave to dry for 10 minutes. 3) Layer on the gold leaf. 4) Blow to settle (touching it as little as possible). 5) Gradually burnish it with a soft brush to finish. Ta-da!

If you’d like your pillar candle display to last all season (and who wouldn’t?) then let your candle burn down a bit and ‘when it makes a dip at the top, pop in a tealight’, says Christine. ‘You get the same effect but without changing the shape of your centrepiece.’