Place Settings: What Do They Contain, and How Many Do You Need?

If you’re on the hunt for a new set of china, you’re going to need to know more than just what kind of pattern you’d prefer. You need to understand exactly what comprises a place setting, how many of those place settings you should have on hand, and if there are any additional pieces of china you should purchase. Without this knowledge, you could be in for some unpleasant surprises on down the road. Nothing is worse than realizing, on the afternoon of your big holiday dinner, that you’re short a place setting or missing a gravy boat. Taking the time to make a list your needs (and how much you’ll need of everything) prior to making your purchase or filling out your registry will make things much easier.

One five-piece place setting in Lenox's Silver Applique pattern.

While you can order china piece by piece, it is often easier and more cost-effective to order it in place settings. Place settings are a collection of various dishes meant to be used by one person. Most of the place settings that Lenox china offers contain one dinner plate, one salad plate, one bread and butter plate, a teacup and a saucer.  While you may not always use every component of a place setting, you will likely get a lot of use out of each of the pieces within it. Sometimes you’ll use them all together for a formal dinner, and sometimes you’ll use a few of the pieces at different times throughout the day. For instance, you might use the teacup, saucer, and bread plate when you have coffee and a croissant at breakfast, then you might use the salad plate for your sandwich at lunch, and the dinner plate later that evening.

This serving bowl is an additional piece of Lenox china that matches the Silver Applique place setting above.

Now that you’ve settled on which pieces you need, it’s time to figure out how much of each piece to order. When it comes to place settings and bowls, you’ll probably want somewhere between eight and twelve place settings. This really depends on how often you intend to entertain for large groups and how much storage space you have. If you’re the person who will be hosting Thanksgiving dinner every year, and you have a pretty large family, you might want to aim for twelve place settings. If you live in a smaller space and likely won’t have huge groups of people over for entertaining, eight will probably be a better fit for you. As for serving pieces, you’ll only need one each of things like coffee or tea services, salt and pepper shakers, gravy boats and covered butter dishes. When it comes to platters, serving bowls, pitchers and covered serving dishes, you might want to order two or three of each—especially if you intend to do a lot of entertaining for large groups. Just make sure that you have room for everything storage-wise, and you should be able to settle on the perfect number for each item. Then sit back and congratulate yourself on planning ahead and putting some thought into this aspect of ordering your china, because it will pay off for you in the long run. You’ll always have just the right dishes on hand, regardless of the situation.