When we set out to blog about table runners, we decided to look into the history of these unique decorative items.

There doesn’t seem to be a definitive origin story for table runners, but most writers we found seem to agree they came about in the Middle Ages.

As blogger Amy Isaman put it:

“Apparently, back in medieval times, people would wipe their faces on the table cloth. Eventually, thank God, this became unacceptable and somebody invented napkins, but people still ate like pigs and spilled their food and drinks all over the tablecloths which then had to be laundered, so some wise woman invented the table runner to protect the table cloth.”

The idea was that the table runner would catch all the spills and dropped food, and then be gathered up for cleaning at the end of the night, leaving the pristine tablecloth behind. Tablecloths and table runners became standard dining fixtures by the 1600s.

Hopefully, you’ll be using your table runners for decorative, and not simply practical, reasons. Here are 10 ways you can put one into play in your home:

Continue reading How to Use a Table Runner →

Did you know that table runners have been used in dining rooms as far back as the Middle Ages? It’s true.

Way back in the Medieval period, table runners were used to protect rare and valuable tablecloths from messy and uncouth diners, many of whom tended to use the tablecloth in front of them as a napkin.

Dining room manners, of course, have changed quite a lot over the past thousand or so years, and today, table runners are generally used for decorative purposes. And yet they also keep expensive tables—and yes, expensive tablecloths—safe from forks, knives, liquid spills and food debris. So maybe things haven’t changed all that much after all!

If you’d like to add a table runner to your own dining room, bear in mind that they can be used for both formal and informal settings. In either situation, they bring color, texture and an added interest to your table. You can use them to celebrate special occasions, to observe the holidays, or simply to change the mood of the room.

Continue reading How to Use a Table Runner →