Replace existing dinner service or buy new?

We've a larger family, all are near, people are round for meals often. We mix all sort of everyday crockery on the tables and islands.

Buy crockery which makes you happy!

Usedtobeblonde even within the last ten years we had a friend who would serve four different types of potato and five different puddings when she invited us round for dinner.
You'd feel obliged to have a spoonful of everything as you knew she'd spent all day, not to mention a lot of money, preparing it all.
In between courses she'd clear the table and you'd hear all the serving dishes being scraped into the kitchen bin.
I used to find going there quite exhausting!

All our entertaining is just people coming round for a meal, but our kitchen is not enormous so we sit down at the dining table, but usually use the everyday crockery.

We haven’t had dinner parties for more years than I care to remember, however a friend had a financial advisor to visit her last week, a young woman. My friend had all her papers out on her dining table and the visitor admired her dinner service in a display cabinet.
On being told it hadn’t been used for ages as no- one does dinner parties anymore she said that her social group still do but it is held in the open plan kitchen with everything just put out on the central island and everyone just helps themselves.A far cry from our formal does of the 70’s and 80’s when we laboured all day with formal table settings and elaborate meals.
I certainly wouldn’t want to go back to those days.

I don't live like that.
I dislike things that can smash if dropped. It makes me anxious.
I prefer melamine or similar.
Only have a few items.
No visitors. Ever.

Unless you have formal dinner parties why not pick up odd pieces in TK Maxx or charity shops?

Having said I like white, a colourful Clarice cliff style set would be really nice. Sorry you missed out windmill.

Ikea do some nice white ‘glassy’ crockery. We bought plates and bowls etc and nothing has broken or chipped. They sell fir about 75 p an item. All my crockery is white so everything matches.

Memories of Patricia Routlidge (sp) as Hyacinth Bucket with her hand painted periwinkles.

I recently came across an entire service, in a charity shop, that looked like Clarice Cliff but obviously wasn't. They were only asking £10 for it.

I wish I'd bought it now.........

My daughter used up a my mum's latticed china when her boys were small.
They really loved them!
She did put them in the dishwasher and washed off all the gold leaf from the ones that had it.

But I think my mum would have been delighted to see her grandchildren love them so!

When we first married, we opted for Purbeck Toast - very heavy and very 70’s! For some reason, best known to myself, I started to collect Royal Creamware - totally impractical - useless latticed plates, delicate handles and not dishwasher safe! I still have it and some unusual pieces look pretty behind glass in my dining room dresser.
Meanwhile, it’s Maxwell Williams now for everyday use - it’s often reduced in sales, handy to replace any chipped/broken items.

I have been steadily moving my "best" china into the kitchen for the last 15 or 20 years as I break the earlier less special plates etc.
Some of it is really beautifully shaped with perfect proportions - some of it is gloriously patterned.

I'd enjoy what you have.
Buy more if you love it - and "use it up" and gradually replace if there is something else that you truly love more.

Life is too short to sell yourself short!
Have a few beautiful items if you can.
💐

I had a 1960 s Midwinter set much depleted, which I eventually sold on eBay, now have blue/ grey Denby. Try to buy made in UK items.

One of the best decisions I made was only to use white china. I started as I meant to go on, and now dislike eating off anything with a pattern. Over the years as things have got broken I have replaced them with odd plates or whatever. They don’t necessarily match perfectly but it doesn’t matter as the overall look is fine. It is also usually cheaper than ‘sets’, and is never either in or out of fashion.

If ever a post sparked my interest it’s this one lol.

Denby! It’s beautiful and very robust. It’s pricey here as it’s imported. I don’t know where it sits price-wise in the UK market.

I’ve stopped buying now, as already said it is very hard wearing
It seems to last and last for which I’m very grateful. Good luck with your decision making.

Denby! Should read We bought Denby some 50 years ago

As bought Debby 'stone's 50 years ago, can't believe that, 8 of everything, 3 plate sizes, cups and saucers, soup bowls and a few serving dishes, most is still in good condition, it's our everyday set now. All this was packed up for us by the store and and I stood at Gatwick checking in for an RAF charter flight with 2 incredibly heavy pieces of hand luggage, the airman checking us in asked about hand luggage and I said just these 2 pieces! When we got home they weighed more than the hold luggage! Those were the days!

My dinner service/general crockery is 25 year old Denbyware. At some stage I did buy a set of all white china from M&S but it soon looked tatty and I got rid of it. I think the old Denbyware will see us out.

I have best china, I rarely if ever use it (Have Denby for entertaining & hand-me downs / supermarket / charity shop for every day)
I'm gradually de-cluttering but the workmanship in hand-painted porcelain is amazing & I still enjoy owning them, & I have plenty of storage, so I'm keeping my best china.

I no longer have "best china". since I sold my Masons Mandelay service to a dealer on EBay and bought some nice blue/grey plates and bowls online. It goes in the dishwasher I love it.

Google the design and you will find outlets stocking replacement pieces if you still have most of the set. E-Bay etc may help as well as charity shops.
My DiL asked me to go and buy some pieces for the dinner service they had as wedding presents which were from John Lewis and had been discontinued. She saw them advertised in a town near me on Facebook marketplace, though she lives 200 miles away, so I assume she must have searched for the design. I went and bought them and handed them over next time I visited. She buys a lot of stuff second hand that way. She also uses 'Vinted' so maybe try there. My DD had a very much loved china travel mug which she had broken some time ago and she found a replacement on 'vinted'.

Good to see so many people are happy and even prefer to buy tableware in charity shops and from EBay rather a new set. Way back in the ‘80s friends felt sorry for me with my unmatched collection which I told them I was enjoying building up. I was shocked at Christmas to get a new tea set, it’s the thought that counts I guess!

Thank Crown Corning , makers of Pyrex by the way and treat yourself to some new crockery.
Sainsbury have some really nice stuff.

Why not put what is left of your old set in eBay and make a few bob for yourself. Get it valued.

I will admit that the sets (note, plural!) that mums has, are nice. All inherited, therefore NONE must be parted with.

Plates, side plates, cups, saucers, jugs, bowls, tureens..... EACH has it. They have all been valued..... at around £25 per set.

She will NOT part with them. They are in a cupboard, never used, never to be used.

I had an idea, I thought it was a good idea, we have a wedding next year, to keep costs down, the bunfight is a bbq and pizza van on our field. I suggested to mum a mock clay pigeon shoot for entertainment, the crockery being the pigeons! She was not amused!!

We use a plate that is microwave safe, (it's used once a week to reheat a dinner) an enamel plate that is our main plate. We have bowls that are Pyrex and collected back in the days of green shield stamps, they are fab! My coffee is drunk from a Bodem glass mug (it sits in a metal/plastic frame) I bought it in the 1990's, I have 2, so when this one dies, I have a spare. My tea is drunk out of an Ikea glass mug that my sister bought me about 10 years ago.

I do not drink the wrong drinks in the wrong cup. I'm very particular. That and I have a set amount of water. I have NO feelings of attachment to the china, I do to my enamel plate, bodem mug, Ikea mug!