A New Years eve tablescape that’s easy to put together, looks absolutely gorgeous and borrows its color palette from the hyggeligt land of Scandinavia. That, ladies and gents, is our topic today and I promised my SEO team that I will not digress- not atleast in the first line. I am under their gunpoint. Oh, and we have links to our favorite bbq recipes and a bbq that you can get for just 1600 INR!

But good news is, like those extra sheets you took in exams to regurgitate the last minute history book force-feeds and which are generally hidden in between page 1 and page 5- full of carnage and garbage, the second paragraph of the blog is a fairly safe place to digress. So I will. Just FYI, if you want to skip to the actionables, it’s from paragraph 5. Mostly.

What an year has it been. Gained, lost, laughed, cried, said good bye to mom forever, whipped out 3 christmas collections in collaboration with brands I love, made some money, bought a lot of things. Most importantly, met few of my closest friends or should I call brothers on Christmas and have the most fulfilling day with food, cakes, rum and chewing gum. What started out as a fairly miserable year somehow ended on a good note and I thought perhaps it’ll be fair to bid the year adieu with love in our hearts and good food on our table.

And while at it, might as well whip up that cozy New Years eve tablescape for two to raise a toast to the fact that we are still alive. And I sincerely think we should all do this. Be thankful and raise a toast to our indomitable spirit. Because that second wave was not easy. We deserve a nice chilled drink with our friends and family and this New Years eve tablescape is here to help you do that!

Here’s how to put a gorgeous but simple New Years eve tablescape with bbq

Keep the table clutter free. Add an overhead garland instead

When it comes to small spaces you’d want maximum sqft. For our apartment balcony, I kept the table clutter free and added an overhead garland instead. This is a fresh fern garland accented with faux fern stems from IKEA. You can buy the faux fern stems here and find how to make fresh garland stems here

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I attached the garlands to my existing fairy lights that I have in my balcony. If you don’t have fairy lights, hang it from the roof with a hook or attach it by the shed.

Keep your flatware and serveware on point

Because our New Years eve tablescape is fairly simple, I’d like to keep our flatware and serve ware on point! With charcoal and white you’d want to opt for gold flatware. This is a crucial, defining factor because if you use silverware it will look dull. For a special dinner or lunch, keep a set of gold flatware in your kitchen cupboard. They literally turn a plain table to a festive table in a jiffy.

I also love these speckled, charcoal dinner and quarter plates by Chairs&Company. It’s very modern, very beautiful and adds the perfect contrast to all the exposed wood and whites. The slightly raised sides also adds a bit of depth to the setting.

Btw, a cool hack is to use saucers for bread plates if you don’t have small plates for bread. Choose a plate with motifs or textures as I have used.

Use clear glassware because they make everything look classy

If you want to get that perfectly classy tablescape, opt for textured clear glass. I used fluted glass tumblers and decanter from GlassForest and etched champagne coupe for cocktails from Pasabahce. You can buy the fluted glass here and the coupes here

Just knot that napkin!

You don’t need expensive fancy rings for a cozy and yet beautiful NYE tablescape. Just do a granny knot. You can stick a fern leaf in knot if you want or flowers with name tag. Simple, effective and my favourite.

Use gold luminaries to accentuate your gold flatware and also to add a little festive bling

Another gem from Chairs&Company, these antique gold luminaries are so beautiful! Gorgeous brass Victorian swag work fits around an etched glass lantern and it shines oh so beautifully as you light a candle. I have taken a few shots at night to show you how utterly beautiful it is.

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Get yourself a good looking bbq! We got ours for 1600 rupees only

When you buy functional things that look good, your home aesthetics stay on point. This New Years eve get yourself a good bbq and enjoy it all winter. Ours is small and portable and we are really excited to take it with us one of these days to a nearby hill and bbq and beer. Get it here.

Our Sourdough Bread recipe

Okay, this is a slightly longer recipe but if you have a starter, here’s what you do. If you don’t have a starter, make a simple artisan bread at home with this recipe. Please remember to knead well.

Our favourite bbq recipes & Links

Given below are two super easy, failproof bbq recipes from my kitchen that you can try. You can pretty much add anything in it and then add it straight to the grill.

1 tablespoon each of Salt + Pepper + Brown Sugar + Chili powder + ground coriander seed

The Ogee bbq Marinade for Chicken. Can be used for Onions & Potatoes too

3 medium garlic cloves, pounded

2 cups hickory smoked barbeque sauce

Mix well and marinate chicken. Let it sit overnight or atleast 5 hours.

Prepare your bbq as per instruction and then cook chicken for about 7 minutes on each side. Once 8 minutes is done, brush a little sauce on top to caramelize. Cook for 2 minutes more. This recipe is for chicken pieces. If using a whole chicken you may need to cook it for atleast 15 minutes each side.

For onions and potatoes, a 30 minute marination is enough

Rosemary and mustard marinade for prawns

You’ll need 1/2 cup dijon mustard + 2 large garlic cloves pounded +2 tablespoons fresh rosemary + 3 tbsp olive oil. You’ll also need 8 to 10 large prawns – deveined and peeled.

Wooden skewers- 4 to 5

Add all the ingredients in a bowl and prep the marinade. Oil the skewers and run them through the prawns. Now pour the marinade on top of the prawns and let it sit for 20 minutes.

Cook in bbq for 1.5 minute each side.

Serve with roasted potatoes or just lime!

Marinade for fish- trout, tilapia or any fish of your choice

Sorry for the super blurry photo but this had to be retrieved from the blog! Circa 2013. If you are doing a full fish on bbq, just slit through, clean well, add a few deep cuts so the spices could go in and rub this marinade all over.

Ground to paste: 1″ ginger + 3 to 4 garlic cloves + 1 green chili + a handful of coriander leaves + Salt + juice of 1/2 a lime

To the paste add chili powder + turmeric powder and 1/2 teaspoon amchoor. Or dry mango powder.

Pat the fish dry and rub this masala all over and let it marinade overnight.

When putting it on the grill, add a few drops of oil on each side and stuff the cavity (fish’s tummy) with lots of coriander and a few cloves of garlic.

Grill for 2 minutes each side.

If doing pieces, 1 minute each side is enough!

Serve with onions and lime! Indian Ishtyle!

And there you have it! A complete guide to rock that New Years ever tablescape- oh heck- the whole partay!

Cheers to life and here’s hoping you have a good one. From the bottom of my heart!

Love, Rukmini