I think porcelain dinnerware is quite durable, but it can scratch. The set from Crate and Barrel looks very nice, and the prices are not bad at all.

I love Corelle! I got my first set in the early 1970s; bought my current set in the mid-1980s. No scratches, although I've noticed the last few years that the irises are not as vivid as they were when new.

I have white Gibson dishes from Big Lots that I bought 5 or 6 yrs. ago and just looked at the plates and don't see any scratches. They can be used in the microwave and are ovenproof (they were all the rage on the cooking and Holiday forums). Like you, I wanted white so I could use my countless other colored dessert plates with them. They also look nice with all of my different chargers.

My thought on my dishes is "live it up", buy the fanciest and the ones you think you'd enjoy seeing everyday.....be kind to yourself! Worry about your level of enjoyment when making this kind or purchase. They'll be with you a long time.

Yes...white scratches and leaves silverware marks....

We tossed our patterned stuff and replaced it with a white porcelain set a couple of years ago. What we got is simple but elegant. We use our new set everyday and for company and compliments are frequent. The pieces aren't light but we like their heft. We've had no scratches or chips.

Good porcelain shouldn't scratch but I guess you can never be too sure about what you've purchased. There's a range of quality like everything else. Perhaps get your new set from a store with a generous return policy so that it can be returned if you find scratches after, say, 6 months of use.

Nicole... You may not believe this as I was surprised myself , but I just checked my plates (service for 4) and no marks whatsoever on them. They are my everyday dishes too. Maybe because the glaze has protected them as they are oven proof.? I did notice on the saucer where the outer rim of the bottom of the cup sits there is a little bit of wear but hardly noticeable to someone who wasn't looking for it. On my good China dishes, I use paper coasters that have my last name initial on them under the cup. It protects but I use it to be a little fancier! :-)

I have used white dishes for26 years. The first set did show marks, the second shows none. I'm sorry I do not know what the difference is.

I had Corelle for years. We had well water and it did stain it.

Rhizo, when we bought this house I needed more dishes, went with plain white. There are so many pretty choices in dishes but I wanted tough, versatile, and many ;) Sur la Table Bistro has worked out perfectly.

They are every day, dressed up for my dining room table, out to the patio - no chips, scratches, marks, breakage in 2 1/2 years now. Knives don't phase them.

I bought three sets, or service for 18. They are on sale there 3 or 4 times a year for $99. Two mugs arrived broken, a phone call took care of it and replacements were sent. Did they want proof, broken items back....nope, just took my word for it saying they didn't want me to handle broken tableware to package and return the broken pieces.

As with a lot of 'sets' though, men don't like the 'hand feel' of the mugs and I rarely use them. I bought clear glass hot beverage mugs from a restaurant supply that cover our needs/entertaining and use those instead.

I have had IKEA 365 plates for over 3 years. No scratches, does not chip easily. Very inexpensive and you can buy in sets or open stock, so if you drop or break one not a big deal. My only complaint is the bowls....they are awkward to fit and take up a lot of space in the dishwasher. Wish they had a smaller, shallower bowl option, but other than that I'm very happy with them. And they're not heavy like a lot of dinnerware.

My Pfaltzgraff Heritage, pictured here, has fine grey and black lines all over it. I just tried--for the first time--removing them from a small plate using Comet powder, and it worked. I don't know what it'll do to the finish though, especially if it's done more than once. The Pfaltzgraff is stoneware, if that makes a difference.

I suppose another possibility for you would be something like Fiestaware in a single color.

Many years ago (35?) I bought a set of Wedgewood oven to table dishes which I assume were/are stoneware. They immediately started getting the gray lines from utensils such as everyday stainless steel dinner knives. I contacted the store where I bought the dishes, and Wedgewood also, both told me what malna wrote above. The problem is it didn't work! I never could get the gray lines to come off and the plates ended up really ugly after a few years. I should have insisted on returning the whole set. I eventually replaced the dishes with a set of Epoch Collection in Country Gingham which has a white center on each plate. I have a few invisible scratches but NO gray marks on these dishes. I just did a Google search on Epoch and found that it is a Noritake line now--they describe it as porcelain so that is why it doesn't mark.

I love Crate and Barrel. Enjoy your new purchase.

Thanks, Maina! I'll get some.

We have had C&B's Cafeware II as our everyday dishes for the last 13 years. Look like new. They are heavy (maybe too heavy for some) compared to Corelle, so you may want to check it out in the store. The plates have a broader lip (edge? border?) than the dishes shown by the original poster above. The bowls are large -- great for soups and salads. They are porcelain.

I have white porcelain dinnerware and am quite content with it. It's a Martha Stewart product with an embossed border. It's never scratched or discolored and has survived marvelously through several years of dishwasher cleaning. Not only is it every day elegant on its own...it dresses prettily with vibrant colored accent pieces...like a bright blue cereal bowl or crispy green salad plate. Plus...dinner creations always look so appetizing on a white background....as though they stepped off the pages of some culinary magazine.

I love your Crate & Barrel selection, Rhizo. The next time I'm challenged to find a new set...I'm going to go looking at Crate & Barrel.

Enjoy!

You people are the best! I am absolutely going to follow up on some of your suggestions.

My present pattern is a discontinued line by Dansk called Ceylon. I've really liked it but am missing some pieces and am just ready for a change. I'm going to keep some of the Dansk but will sell several place settings...now that I see what they're going for on EBay. Yikes, I had no idea!

I'm going for all white, simple, elegant.

Thanks, everybody....I promise to let you know what I end up with.

I have 2 sets of dishes, both about 40 yrs old. Correlle for everyday and white Homer Laughlin stoneware for special occasions. Neither set has any gray marks

We have 2 sets of Corelle white dishes and we love them. We have had them about 2 years. So far they have not scratched or stained. They are light weight which I think is a bonus for us seniors. I also like the fact that we can use them with our other dishes if we need too.

It's nice to change such things every now and then.

To scratch or not to scratch depends on the hardness of the glaze as well as the underlying material. In theory, porcelain dinnerware (as with porcelain tile) should have a very hard and durable surface.

When we were shopping, we gave Homer Laughlin's Fiesta a test drive - meaning, we bought half a set to see if it would work for us. I really like the shapes and colors they have, but their quality control is appalling. Perhaps half of the pieces we bought were broken in the box, and when we were able to accumulate (at multiple Macy's locations) enough to be a starter set, we found the pieces (in multiple colors) all showed marks from forks and spoons in addition to knives. Maybe the older stuff is better but we returned it all. The salesperson at the store said they were having a lot of Fiesta returns.

I have solid white, square corelleware. I've had them, hmmmmm, 8 years anyhow. They don't have cut marks or chips or cracks. I haven't broken any of them. 8 coffee cups, 8 cereal bowls, 8 dinner plates, 8 salad plates. I would recommend corelleware above anything else. I've had stoneware etc., for me it was too big, too heavy, took up too much precious cupboard space and didn't fit in dishwasher very well.

This is my set.....http://www.target.com/p/corelle-16-piece-square-dinnerware-set-pure-white/-/A-10291946?ref=tgt_adv_XSG10001&AFID=google_pla_df&LNM=10291946&CPNG=Dining&kpid=10291946&LID=16pgs&ci_src=17588969&ci_sku=10291946&kpid=10291946&gclid=CPKaru7x7MYCFZMWHwoduyIOKQ

I see white as the "gold" standard for dinnerware, because it presents the food in the best light, imo.

That said ;-)

We've used an everyday set of white Lenox for over a dozen years, and I just switched to a taupe-y earth tone made by Royal Douton.

I needed a change!

Our white plates and bowls look terrific, still.

My everyday dishes are over 20 years old. They are plain classic white porcelain. I bought them at the closeout sale when Bamberger's dept. store went out of business. They're branded on the back with the name "Gourmet", and have no marks or scratches.

I agree with mimipadv. Food looks best plated on white. For that reason all my dinnerware is white although some have a colored border like my Corelle Hollyberry Xmas plates.

Just a thought: Get microwave safe dishes. These days, various plates and bowls are going to find their way into the microwave oven.

I've flagged the spam post, but you all feel free to do the same. :-)

Thanks, jem...I would never even consider purchasing dinnerware that wasn't oven safe, dishwasher safe, and microwave safe.

Thanks to all who have reinforced my confidence in white dishes. I should have trusted my own experience....my present dinnerware, over 20 years old, look brand new. They are mostly white with a wide blue patterned band.

Thanks, too, for the comments from you Corelle fans, but it's not for me. There's something about the way it feels that simply does not appeal to me. There are some pretty patterns, though...that's for sure. Katlan, your dishes are so lovely.

Thanks rhizo! Good luck on your search, I hope you will post a pic when you make your decision.

Italian Countryside by Mikasa. I picked up a bunch of extra dinner plates at a resale shop in Vail. They were all in good shape. I've found it to be a very durable and elegant set, and we don't baby our stuff.

One of the lovely things about white is that you can accent your dinner plate with anything to make your tablescape different. I love the look of Spode Blue Room against a plain white plate.

About white dinner ware: The worst offender for marking dinner ware, especially ceramics, is aluminum. It welds to the ceramic and will not wash off. The only way to remove it is with mechanical scrubbing with abrasives or by aggressive chemicals.

I dabble in lapidary and we use aluminum to mark stones. The mark is permanent; It won't come off with ordinary detergents or cleaning solvents. The only time we loose the mark is when we grind it off.

Jem, that's an interesting piece of information. I'll file that away amongst the braincells and hope I can remember.

i'm with wanda...corelle is easy to find, from wm to target...and in complete sets...(you do have to buy 2 for service of 8)

What kind of aluminum object would come in contact with ceramic dinnerware and how would it "weld" to it?

Barkeeper's Friend will remove those ugly marks as well as from a white sink! I think that a magic eraser sponge might remove it also.

Take a look at French Countryside, by Mikasa. Mine has been going strong for over 30 years!

I have a couple of sets of fancier, dinnerware, but whenever I start to get them out and feel the weight difference from my plain white Corelle, they go back to the china cabinet just for decoration. I love, also, how many MORE Corelle plates I can get into my dishwasher. I can feed all 13 of the family on Corelle plates and serving dishes and still only do one load.

I did the same thing - I finally threw out and gave away all my old dishes and bought new. I bought plain white porcelain from Macy's. I really like them. And last winter I bought a few pieces (soup bowls, platters, etc.) of Fiestaware in scarlet. The while porcelain and the scarlet Fiestaware look great together! I may go buy some more other pieces I don't have (dessert plates, tiny fruit bowls, etc.) of Fiestaware, just for fun. I don't like Fiestaware full size plates, though - too heavy.

SnidelyWhiplash:

In regard to your question about aluminum contacting ceramic ware:

I have experienced aluminum marks on dinner ware during manual washing dishes. The marks came from aluminum pot, pans, skillets, and ice cream dippers. When an aluminum object rubs across a plate hard enough, the plate may get an aluminum mark similar to a pencil mark. These are normal accidental scrapes and dings that happen during the course of washing, rinsing, and racking a mixed load of dishes and cook ware.

The term weld is descriptive of how tenacious the mark adheres to the substrate. There is no torch-like item involved. The marks develop a molecular bond stronger than paint and is difficult to remove.

Run a little experiment. Take a ceramic crock and mark the rim with the edge of an aluminum pot. Now, try to remove the mark.

So it sounds like ceramic will become scratched, and porcelain is more resistant/completely resistant to scratching? I have seen Pfaltzgraff everyday dishes that are scratched as described by jemdandy above - are they ceramic?

A good thing to know if you are just starting out and trying to pick everyday dishes ..

My SIL has had several sets of Pfaltzgraff. She gets them at Kohls when they are on sale and she has a 30% off coupon also. She has taken the first two sets back because several pieces chipped and/or cracked. She buys the who shebang when she buys. Service for 12, all the serving pieces, etc.

The most recent set, which is very pretty, has had two pieces chip so far. It's just her and her husband, with grown kids coming for dinner occasionally, so they are not used hard. Kohls let her return the entire sets both times because apparently Pfaltzgraff has a lifetime guarantee? Don't quote me on that, haha.

I still like Corelleware the best, now I'm going to check out their Christmas pattern. My Christmas dishes are old, missing some pieces and are stoneware.