A bold new outdoor look, with heft unusual in melamine, is Williams-Sonoma’s Ikat dinnerware. Four dinner plates are $59.95, salads, in a selection of colors, are 4 for $51.95. The plates are online only at williams-sonoma.com. Platters and bowls can be found in area Williams-Sonoma stores.
From Target, these cheerful Mudhut Marika dinner plates. The dinner plates are 4 for $14.99, salads 4 for $12.99. The plates come in two colorways, pink/red and blue/gold. At area Target stores and target.com.
Rustic rubbed-edge-looking melamine dinnerware and serveware come in half a dozen colors, online only at williams-sonoma.com. Dinner plates are 4 for $51.95, salads 4 for $43.95.
Feeling mid-century modern? So’s Crate & Barrel, with these new Fish melamine plates (slightly oversize dinner and salad, $5.95 and $4.95 each), complemented by Fish acrylic glasses ($4.95 each). At area Crate & Barrel stores and crateandbarrel.com.
From Pottery Barn come, left, blue-and-white Shibori dishes; salad plates are $32.50 for 4. On the right are the vivid stripes of Chesapeake, also $32.50 for 4 in salad size. At area Pottery Barn stores and potterybarn.com.
From Sur La Table, the Hydrangea pattern, left, is available as dinner plates ($10 each) and salad plates ($8). You can buy a 12-piece all-Hydrangea set (4 dinner plates, 4 salads, 4 cereal bowls) for $100, or you can coordinate a Hydrangea salad plate with a blue dinner plate made to look like weathered painted wood ($10 each). At area Sur La Table stores and at surlatable.com.
West Elm, Pottery Barn’s kid sister, has colorful duck plates, several patterns, $8 each in salad size. The abstract, vaguely nautical Maritime Melamine charger or oversize buffet plate, right, is $7. At area West Elm stores or westelm.com
Target’s Mudhut Ikat tumblers are on sale. Regularly 8 (4 tall and 4 short) for $25.99, they’re now $15.60. At area Target stores and target.com.
One of our favorite looks in real glass is now in acrylic. Beaded outdoor short 15-ounce tumblers, left, are $59.95 for a set of 6 (tall 21-ounce tumblers are $65.95 for 6). Online only at williams-sonoma.com. Our other favorite look is bubbly French Biot glass, here rendered in acrylic. The short tumblers, in assorted colors, are 4 for $9.99 at area Target stores and target.com.
DuraClear Osteria Red Wine glasses are six for $89.95 in assorted colors. They hold 14 ounces, and there’s no penalty so far as we know for drinking diet Coke from them. At area Williams-Sonoma stores and williams-sonoma.com. Also, there are similar margarita glasses, tall tumblers and stemmed wineglasses.
Crate & Barrel is clearing out these great acrylic beer glasses for $2.97 each. At crateandbarrel.com.
I AM RELIEVED TO say that there is a Plastics Historical Society based in London and it publishes the Plastiquarian journal twice a year. Why relieved? Because, as unfashionable as this is, I confess that I LOVE PLASTIC! Particularly plastic drinking tumblers. And the very existence of this venerable society and its academic journal makes my enthusiasm feel more legitimate.
This enthusiasm carries over to dinner dishes, but in that case I share my pleasure with a whole horde of people who love to eat outdoors, which is where most melamine plastic serveware is used, and therefore marketed.
(BTW, I don’t understand why people buy plastic for patio and pool, saying people are barefoot out there. From what I see, lots of people are barefoot indoors as well, and our household pets are always barefoot, but so be it.)
Until very recent years, big design brains have not focused on the Melamine Set, if I may call us that. Williams-Sonoma was early into it, selling melamine dinner and serving sets in patterns that mimic vivid Italian or Portuguese faience. There’s lots more out there now, some of it taking itself seriously in terms of price but some inexpensive enough to be an “extra” set for lunches out in the garden.
Come to my house for dinner and I’ll break out the Royal Crown Derby (“Aves Gold”; I’m still missing a few salad plates, if you’re so inclined). But if we sit outside before the mosquitoes swoop in, it’ll be melamine all the way.
—Nancy McKeon
Mrs. Bishop: that blue-mustardy combo you want sounds delightfully Matisse-ish! maybe one of these suggestions will work for you!
i found these on Amazon:
for the blue:
http://www.amazon.com/GHP-Inspired-Bamboo-Melamine-12-Piece/dp/B00EO0DQ44/ref=pd_sim_sbs_79_8?ie=UTF8&dpID=41w%2BXL%2BQoIL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=0YRWRG0RCGPAJ5SS6E10
there’s also what they call Lemon Zest Yellow:
http://www.amazon.com/GHP-Inspired-Bamboo-Melamine-12-Piece/dp/B00EO0DQ44/ref=pd_sim_sbs_79_8?ie=UTF8&dpID=41w%2BXL%2BQoIL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&refRID=0YRWRG0RCGPAJ5SS6E10
and there’s this mustard (but it apparently doesn’t come in a strong blue):
http://www.amazon.com/Gourmet-Products-Melamine-12-Piece-Dinnerware/dp/B01AA51X1O/ref=sr_1_130?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1465232506&sr=1-130&refinements=p_n_material_browse%3A376935011
on hsn.com, i found Le Cadeaux Provence (but only salad plates) in a mustardy yellow and cobalt blue:
http://www.hsn.com/products/le-cadeaux-provence-set-of-4-melamine-9-salad-plates/7691531?sz=5&sf=QC0217&ac=&mr:trackingCode=86897102-80CA-E411-8819-90E2BA0278A8&mr:referralID=NA&cm_mmc=Paid+Search+Brand-_-google-_-G_BRA_Generic_DSA-_-dsa-150239145201_mkwid_s1WFq4LvM_pcrid_95191343241_pkw_dsa-150239145201_pmt__pdv_c_slid_&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=dsa-150239145201&utm_campaign=G_BRA_Generic_DSA&gclid=COil-_Tyk80CFcgjgQodHzwHSQ
I am very interested in the plain coloured melamine dinner plate range in colours
blue and strong yellow/mustard?
joanie, just catching up with comments now. that Heritage melamine is fabulous-looking and, as you point out, heftier than most. great find–thank you!
I bought pink melamine set in 1958. It was pink with white embossed winter trees. I loved the set. But the set got throw in the trash by mistake by my ex husband. I did not realize then how careless he could be. I never found that same set.
My current favorite melamine is a new style called “Heritage” from Q Squared. It’s heavier than most melamine out there, has a gorgeous design, looks and feels like blue and white hand-thrown pottery. Full disclosure: I sell it in my shop in Little Washington and online, and I am obsessed with it!
Now THAT I wouldn’t have guessed! Thanks!
Love this stuff!! Another source, believe it or not, is the Christmas Tree Shops. But Target is the “go to” melamine Mecca.