A good table is not about having the right things — it is about the relationship between them. How the cloth tone relates to the plate weight. How the candles relate to the ceiling height. How much of the table surface is visible. These are proportion decisions, not purchasing decisions, and they are available to everyone.
The cloth
The tablecloth sets the temperature of the entire table. White linen reads as formal; undyed linen reads as warm; dark linen reads as dramatic. Most tables benefit from warmth, which is an argument for undyed or very pale linen in natural tones. Linen also absorbs light rather than reflecting it, which means candles cast longer, warmer shadows.
If you do not own a tablecloth in the right tone, a linen fabric length from a fabric shop is often more elegant and more economical than a purpose-made cloth.
The centrepiece logic
The centrepiece should not be the most interesting thing on the table. The most interesting thing on the table should be the food and the people. The centrepiece provides something for the eye to rest on in the intervals — it should be calm, low enough to see over, and made of materials that belong to the same family as the cloth and plates.
In winter: a single vessel with deep green branches, some dried materials, and no flowers that will wilt by hour two. Or a group of candles in varied sizes, nothing else. Both are enough.
Lighting
Turn the overhead lights off or very low before guests arrive. Candles alone are sufficient for a dinner table if you use enough of them. Use a number of candles that feels slightly excessive — candles read as sparse when they are exactly sufficient, and you need them to read as generous.
A single source of warm, low ambient light at the far end of the room — a floor lamp, or a lit adjacent room — helps with the transition between arriving and the table being ready.
What dinner requires of a table
Space. Enough space between each place setting that no one feels compressed — this means approximately sixty centimetres of width per person, honestly measured. When the table is too crowded with objects, it creates a low-level anxiety about space and movement that people feel without identifying. Remove anything from the table that does not serve the meal or the light.