Happy day before Thanksgiving! I thought I’d share with you my Simple, White, and Natural Thanksgiving tablescape so you could see that a beautiful table doesn’t have to be:
- expensive
- complicated
- over-the-top
- take a lot of time
Of course it can be, but that’s not what we’re about here at AOC! We like things simple and easy, yet beautiful.
The best way I know to achieve that is to use a lot of natural elements – hopefully what you can find right outside your door. Even a few leaves scattered on the table with a couple of dollar store candles will add to the festiveness of the holiday. But with just a little more time and inspiration you can make a “wow” moment for your family and friends.
Here are the steps I take when creating a fun table to honor my family and guests with:
- Find an inspiration piece. This year the Pottery Barn knock-off white rustic turkeys I made from thrift store candle holders helped set our theme color. Your inspiration piece can be something you inherited, something you grew, or something you made. Then let the colors in the piece guide the rest of the table decorations.
- Decide on a tablecloth, placemats, or runner and napkins that coordinate with your inspiration piece. Shop your house for anything that would work – even sheets for the table or tea towels for napkins if you don’t have actual table linens.
- Gather natural elements. We use pumpkins that we grow every year, and as you can see in the photo above, that doesn’t have to limit you to only orange themes. Leaves are always good, too, and at this time of year dried garden flowers like hydrangeas, coneflowers, coral bells and other interesting flower shapes all work well.
- Add some candles. I usually do either a lot of tea candles or just a couple of taper candles.
- Set the table with your dishes, glasses and silverware. If you have different plates to choose from, that’s great, but it doesn’t matter really once you’ve got the rest of the table looking festive. Use what you’ve got and it will all come together. Don’t be afraid to mix-and-match, either, if you’ve got more company than matching dishes. Just make it look planned – like the unmatched plates only on the ends, or every other plate – and it will look like it was meant to be.
- Create your tablescape early. A day or two before, if you can, is great because then you get to enjoy it for awhile, but the morning of the event is sufficient. You won’t be as crazy as a last-minute set and you can enjoy the process more.
That’s it! Take more time if you think it’s fun, or spend just a few minutes if you need to be doing something else. But either way, your family will feel cherished because you took the time to help make the holiday special.
Happy Thanksgiving, friends!
I’m sharing this at Tip Me Tuesday.
Your table is simple, yet beautiful! Happy Thanksgiving!
What a pretty setting, I like things kept simple
Lee
Lovely! I forgot to look at the dollar store today for turkeys, pooh! And all the Thanksgiving stuff was 50% off. I’ll have to go back with my $5off/$25 coupon and combine it with my soda purchase.