Dishes for everyday

Another daily user of Botanical Garden here Chimaera. Like so many other Gransnetters who married &/or set up home in the 80s, I used to have Eternal Beau but I'd always hankered after the Portmeirion that the family where I used to babysit as a teenager used daily. How I loved it & I always vowed I'd have it one day. Eventually, about 12 years ago when I was working, we had our one and only bonus & I bought my first 4 place settings & I was so thrilled. Since then, I've quietly added to it & we use it all the time for every day or the rare smarter dinner parties. It's all I ever wanted & I wouldn't change it for anything!!

I also thought op was asking for simple meal suggestions ?

Ex H was a bully - I wasn't allowed to choose anything I liked - he chose a really heavy, dark crockery set when we married - should have seen that as a warning! When I divorced, I let him keep it ( along with pretty much everything else, including the house) and bought what I truly loved - Portmeirion Botanic Garden. Friends and family have added to it in the 23 years since, I have glasses, cutlery, the lot. It's used every day, I love it, so does my husband of 12 years, thankfully. It's a reminder of a new beginning for me, and gives me pleasure every time I use it.

Everyday is Denby regency green. Dinner services are Royal Worcester Evesham, seconds, bought at their factory shop when on holiday many years ago, and also Mason's Madrigal, bought over a period from Boots when they sold china - many years ago. Like many other posters, the ' good stuff ' isn't used very often nowadays.

I’m a fan of mid century design, so I have got Midwinter Sienna which I’ve bought in bits and pieces from eBay. I also have some Hornsea pottery storage jars from the 70s. I was thrilled to see some Midwinter and Hornsea in the V and A ceramics gallery.

My wedding China was Wedgewood’s Hathaway Rose but I only have some bowls and two dinner plates left. In the early eighties I bought two sets of Eternal Beau as we entertained a large family quite often and that set is now much reduced and generally used as the “everyday China”.
Some years ago I was walking through a china department in a large store when a display of reduced china caught my attention and I bought 8 place settings to use as best. It was Villeroy and Bosch Kimono Edo and I got it for one third of the list price as the store was clearing it out but I had to buy the bowls from another shop at full price!

I am going to clear out the Eternal Beau soon and perhaps start using the V&B more often.

Back at the start of our relationship, my now mother-in-law collected Old English Roses pattern china, which was never used, but was displayed in a china cabinet. She also had another set in that cabinet, which was blue based, but I've no idea what the pattern was.

For birthdays etc, I used to buy her a piece of Old English Roses, to go into her collection. Until the day when she told me that she was only collecting it so that she would have a set each to leave to my husband and his sister. I was horrified, as I HATED that pattern (and the blue one that was also in the cabinet) and couldn't imagine ever using it, and definitely wouldn't want it on display in my home. I stopped buying her any more pieces from that day on.

I don't have a posh set and an every day set. Just use my plain white for each and every meal.

I like plain white crockery, so I can change the colour of the settings with a table cloth, napkins, accessories etc.

My current set is square, from Argos but the pasta bowls are from Sainsbury, and actually are not a good shape/depth for the dishwasher, but we cope

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

I also got rid of the ‘posh’ dinner service, I do have a nice plain white with a fine platinum band from M&S to replace it. Everyday has to be plain white, Ikea, M&S or even bits from the supermarket, they all blend together. My only other non-white are some lovely, blue pasta bowls by Denby, which I bought at the Factory shop. Perfect size and tons cheaper than buying Denby in a store.

When everything in tableware 'went white' I matched simple white porcelain plates in size and shape to my Minton wedding gift dinner set and I bought only white candles too for dinner parties, in white candlestick holders. (Ah, dinner parties will they ever come back? Proper ones around a table inside I mean.... Even spaghetti or hash tasted better then by candlelight when the wine was flowing.) I'm only missing one sauce boat should the good times ever return.

Everyday dishes are about 15 years old, and from a 16 place setting I have 9 dinner plates, 7 plates, 3 mugs and 12 bowls left, but they are very bright and colourful and I can’t part with them. We do have plain grey ones for dinner parties and such.

J52

We have always had Denby for every day use. It’s almost indestructible.

My grandson, looked on with horror as he flipped his Denby supper plate (accidentally) up in the air and watched it complete a somersault before hitting our flagstone floor......It didn't break, much to our astonishment. We still have (most
of ) our Gypsy service but all but one of our bowls has disappeared.... Interestingly one of my best friends on our small island also has an identical but incomplete set. Perhaps we could make a whole one between us...

For years we had that Habitat Blue Denmark. Now I've only got about 3 saucers left. The rest went to various family members when they were setting up home. I'm quite happy with plain white Sainsbury dinner plates but I do have some lovely fancy desert dishes and side plates of various sorts from Anthropologie.

Plain white from Sainsbury's for us too. For special occaisions we use a Limoge dinner service inherited by my DH

Plain white for me. Plain white with gold edges for “special “ days. I recently got rid of boxes and boxes of eternal beau. How I loved it in the 80s. Used to request it for birthdays, Christmas etc. (And when the table was fully set it looked fantastic) Had so much and was taking up space. Mentioned it to a new friend and lo and behold she is an avid fan . She bought all mine! She must now have hundreds of pieces in/on her dresser whilst I have a bit of cash and extra space in the garage!

I have tea, coffee and dinner service in Doulton china but they do not get used on a daily basis because of the silver edging. They would not go in the dishwasher.
For meals in the kitchen I use plain white china plates.

J52 you clearly do not know my GS who has replaced my mother as our families ‘champion smasher’

Oh dear. I have some old but practical Pyrex oval plates for larger meals.They must be 30 plus years old, Everyday plates are from a party plan company I used to work for years ago (Princess House). I did have the whole set including mugs, cups etc but I do not know what happened to them. For Christmas or larger family gatherings I have plain white large plates. I use bowls for pasta and rice dishes. I have a mix of mugs and do not use cups and saucers. Now I wonder if you are all thinking I am a strange person.

I bought a set of Sanderson etchings & roses from House of Fraser 15 years ago. 8 place settings with tea coffee and espresso cups. Kept them for 'best' till my American DIL couldn't understand why keep a dinner set you love and never use. When we downsized I gave my white dinner set to a young couple just setting up home and for the last 6 years have used my best one every day. Couple of breakages replaced from ebay for way over the top price, as no longer made but I still admire them when taking them out of the dishwasher every day. I am now in the no longer keep for best...except just thought of my cutlery set bought for our wedding by our best friends now both passed which I only use for Christmas!

Plain white here too. Late husband broke a lot of my Denby ware (neurological condition) so I didn't replace because I couldn't be sure he wouldn't do it again when 'helping'. Sainsbury, IKEA, ILVA are fine, and I don't worry if there are any accidents. Nobody, except snooty SIL has ever noticed, and if they do, I don't care!

I use a mixture, so all sets of the same item match, but none of the sets match! Mixture of Royal Doulton, Emma Bridgwater, Portmeirion, Denby and Asda. I have a bone china ‘posh’ dinner service that has been tucked away and not used for years. I can’t even remember the manufacturer.

I did collect royal doulton lavender rose a long time ago, mainly it remained in the sideboard, except for special occasions. 2005 was when we did the first big downsize after being in the family home for 34 years and that is when I took it to the local oxfam shop, they sold certain things at a good price and it meant a nice chumk of money went to charity

Then I collected the jamie oliver white and since my move 15 months ago, I got rid of all JO, bar some useful dishes and bought my denby regency green direct from the denby site at sales time or harts of stur. If I could turn the clock back I would never have bought the royal doulton

Completely unbranded, Art Deco patterned rim, bought in Carrefour years ago on a booze cruise. You could buy sets of four, so we had 8 dinner plates, sideplates and soup bowls but 4 of the rest. Down to 6 now, but only 1 beaker. Before that we used to buy sets of four from Woolworths. Happy memories!

The 50 year old Denby Potter Wheel is stored in the attic until I get round to ebaying it. We currently use another Denby set which has been on the go for 25 years. Had a brief break with some M&S square white crockery but soon went back to the old faithful. Never wanted a posh china service.