Styled + Set: Valentine’s Day Entertaining

Today I am so excited to be joining the most amazing group of bloggers for the Styled + Set Blog Tour: Valentine’s Day Entertaining! This wonderful tour is hosted by Lory of Designthusiasm (thank you Lory!) and features 30 bloggers sharing decorating ideas and inspiration for Valentine’s Day. There will be 6 bloggers a day, for 5 days, so check back during the week to see all the inspiration! And for even more inspiration, check out my free e-book featuring twelve of my favorite tablescapes! read more

Seven Gorgeous Holiday Tablescapes

Happy Holidays and welcome to our Holiday Tablescape Blog Hop! If you’re a regular reader here, you know how much I enjoy doing holiday tables. That’s why I decided to write an e-book with twelve tables – one for every month of the year! Are you ready for the holidays yet? I’ve decorated, done some shopping (definitely not all!), and am starting to plan my Christmas dinner, so tablescaping is something that is on my mind. I don’t know about you, but one of my absolute favorite things to look at on blogs or Pinterest is tablescapes. With that in mind, we decided to do a blog hop where we each do a different interpretation of a holiday tablescape. When I started planning my table, I knew I wanted to do something in a neutral Christmas vein; much like the decor in the rest of the house (you can see my two Christmas tours here and here). For me, that meant no red, and incorporating the creams, naturals, and greens that I had already used elsewhere.

Neutral Holiday Tablescape featuring Silver and Greens

I used a silver charger from Pottery Barn and mixed it with my everyday white plates. The small mercury candleholders I already owned, and I added the taller ones from Pottery Barn. I never feel like a table is complete without something natural, so I added greens clipped from my yard mixed with some I purchased. And of course, I had to add my favorite white hydrangeas! They are my absolute favorite flower, and I think they work in any season. I used a flax colored linen napkin and runner from Sur la Table. The runner is not available in this color anymore, but I found similar ones here, and here. And rather than use napkin rings, I decided to continue the natural theme and used a small piece of pine tree clipping and a little green frosted pinecone ornament tied to the napkin with twine. Similar pinecone ornaments here, here, here, and here. I love how it’s casual but elegant at the same time! The silver and green mercury ornaments that I layered over the greens were ones I bought from Pottery Barn a few years ago. I’ve included links for the exact items I used when possible, and I always try to find similar options if the original items are no longer available. (*some affiliate links used for your convenience*)

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And if you’re looking for more inspiration for your holiday table, be sure to sign up for my emails and get my free e-book, A Calendar of Tablescapes!

Gorgeous Holiday Tablescape Bloggers!

She Leaves a Little Sparkle
The Design Twins
2 Ladies & a Chair
Oscar Bravo Home
Maison de Cinq (that’s me!)
Styled with Lace
Happy Happy Nester read more

Nature Inspired Christmas Tablescape

Well, it’s already only 3 weeks until Christmas! How did that happen??! I have really been getting into the spirit of the holidays lately. I don’t know if it’s because I had to decorate a little earlier this year for my two Holiday Home Tours here and here, or that it has been so cold here in California (a rarity this early), but either way, I am so excited for Christmas this year! read more

Friday Favorites – Vintage Turkey Plates and Platters

Thanksgiving is one of my absolute favorite holidays, probably second only to Christmas. I love cooking (and eating 😉 ), and tablescaping, so it’s custom made for me! But what I love most is that it’s our only truly American holiday. And because it’s not religious, nearly everyone celebrates it. It’s unifying spirit, as well as the pause it gives us to say thank you for all we have… well, it has my heart. I don’t know when I fell in love with the idea of turkey patterns, specifically vintage turkey plates and platters, but probably somewhere around the time I got into collecting different plates for the holidays. I love how sweet and old-fashioned they are. And really, there isn’t much “decor” to be found for Thanksgiving, and this gives me something to display that I love! They’re fun to collect, and utterly charming, which is why I find I buy a few more each year. But I figure that’s good, right? Eventually when I have children who have spouses and maybe even grandchildren, I’ll have enough so that we can all use them around a huge Thanksgiving dinner table 🙂

This year I displayed my Williams Sonoma turkey platter on the kitchen mantel. This platter is not vintage, but it does have a vintage feel and it was on sale, so I couldn’t resist! I linked some similar ones below since this is now sold out. read more

Neutral Fall Tablescape

Today I wanted to share with you the neutral fall tablescape I did as my guest post last week! Tablescaping is one of my favorite things to do. I think because I love having dinner parties and hosting friends, decorating the table has been something that has come about naturally as a part of that. If you struggle with table setting or just love it and are looking for more ideas, you should check out my free e-book which has twelve pretty (and easy!) tablescapes – one for each month of the year! This table was created around these gorgeous green pumpkins I found! I was inspired to create a table that was soft, and yet still translated that “fall feeling.” This neutral fall tablescape started in my head the day I found these pheasant plates at Home Goods and fell in love. Though I try not to buy too many seasonal dishes, I loved these too much to resist them! One trick that I like to do is to buy one or two new styles of plate each year, but instead of buying a whole set, I buy only the dessert/salad plate. It works really well for me as all of my other dishes are white or cream. This way I can layer whatever seasonal plate I’ve chosen and mix it in with all of my white dishes and vintage ironstone. And another plus (at least for me) is that then there are not large sets of dishes to store! It’s pretty easy to store just 8 little salad plates and I love the way they completely change the table. The plates are primarily brown and green, so I chose to emphasize the green and kept the table fairly neutral. I used those white and pale green pumpkins I found, along with seeded eucalyptus and some dried hydrangeas from my garden. This table would be great for an early fall dinner party or event, but it works equally well for Thanksgiving. And if you wanted to add some more traditional fall colors, you could switch out the napkins for brown or rust, and change some of the green pumpkins to orange.

Neutral Fall Tablescape Sources read more

Spooky Chic Halloween Tablescape in Black and Silver

For the most part, I usually only decorate for Halloween outside. Well, until last year, that is. It all started when I purchased the cutest Halloween plates on sale from Williams Sonoma! I fell in love with them, and used them in last year’s Halloween tablescape. And because that was so fun, and also because I wanted to use them again, I decided to do another one this year. read more