Yuki Sugiura It's been over a year since we last had guests inside our houses for dinner. Now, on the first weekend that we're allowed to have people over, even to stay the night, we may need a slight refresher on how to play the gracious host and put on a dinner party worthy of a post-lockdown celebration. Setting the scene Our dining rooms are more used to being used as offices these days, dining tables piled high with laptops, notebooks and stacks of paper. It's time to clear all that away, get out the polish and lay the table properly. As interior designer Shalini Misra notes, 'The tablescape is so important; tableware, linens, plates, glasses and cutlery set the mood and tone for the evening.' It's more than likely too, that most of your best dinner plates have been left unloved over the pandemic, so now is the time to get them out again.