Tag Archives: centerpiece

Tabula rasa, Transformed for Thanksgiving

Posted on November 19, 2012 by | 2 Comments

Family and friends are visiting this long holiday weekend, much fun will revolve around food, and the table should be special. For decorating, this year I was inspired by the outdoors. We live in a beautiful suburban Chicago neighborhood full of trees. Some oaks have stood for centuries here. I’ve collected acorns during walks, and our yard is full of pinecones and willow, maple and oak leaves.

This year’s theme is natural and simple. I hope this inspires you to look at what’s around you in autumn, and use it in decorating.

Here’s how I built the table, layer by layer. You can see the room already has autumn colors …

Blank slate:

Obviously it’s not a huge table. It can seat six, and eight only if you don’t mind bumping elbows a lot, so things are smaller scale.

I started with a rough scratchy burlap runner. The width covered the table, which I didn’t want, so I folded the ends over so the fringed selvedges showed in the middle:

The burlap got quite wrinkled while sitting in a bag, and it was a bear to iron. It’s still not perfect but that’s okay, wrinkles won’t show later.

I added candleholders made of teakwood roof shingles from Thailand:

Melted wax got all over one of them, but I didn’t clean it completely off. It won’t be noticeable when I’m done (plus, I have a whole house to clean, this is small fry and I don’t have time to deal).

I turned to our baskets full of candles:

I chose different colors, which are also all different fragrances so it was smelling pretty funky in the dining room. I’m hoping they’ll air out over the next few days. Or maybe more likely, we’ll get used to smelling it, and arriving family — who are fine to be honest — will let us know if it’s offensively strong!

The thing about the candles is, they’re votives. Votives liquidify. So this is not an appropriate way to use votives. They should be in deep holders to catch the melting wax. These candleholders are designed for 2″ x 3″ pillar candles. I used votives here for the color and don’t intend to burn them. Instead I’ll light the wicks briefly to singe them and make a little bit of pooling wax.

Next, I added some natural materials found around our property: pinecones, acorns, willow leaves, oak leaves, iris seeds. I scattered them about just as they fall around our house outdoors.

It’s slightly messy, just like our property right now.

Here’s the centerpiece:

We usually keep the food buffet-style on the kitchen island, so a centerpiece filling the middle of the table works for us.

Next for the table settings, I added autumn-color placemats purchased years ago from Crate & Barrel. They’re a mix of jacquard, dupioni and velvet fabrics. We’ve never had gravy drippings and other messes on them, so I honestly don’t know how they’d hold up, but hey, they’re pretty:

I like how the dressy placemats contrast with the burlap.

Next I added gold chargers purchased this summer at an estate sale. I think they were originally about $18 each at Crate & Barrel but I got them for $2 each. This is their first outing on our table:

Then I added celadon plates from Thailand:

I haven’t yet fully finished the table, because it will sit like this for a few days until Thursday, and I didn’t want too many things to get dusty. It still needs an element to bring some height (maybe taper candles that we’ll light), and obviously bigger plates, bowls, napkins, silverware and water and wine glasses. Meanwhile I wanted a partially-dressed table when people arrive … promises of a good autumn meal to come.

I’m taking about a week off of blogging to make time for family and friends over Thanksgiving. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday too!

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Posted in Dining Room, DIY & Crafts, In Our Chicago House

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Allium Floral Fireworks Centerpiece

Posted on July 31, 2012 by | 3 Comments

When the globes of allium flowers burst so big in the spring, they’re always a surprise. I know they’re there, lurking under the soil surface, but each year the bulbs spread and the display gets more spectacular.

But what’s more surprising is the fireworks display that remains after the first burst. It just lasts and lasts. Yes it’s a bit neutral in color, but you can spraypaint dried allium flowers any color you want, or dust them with twinkly sparkly powder. Each year, a landscaping business near us paints its huge allium globes purple to keep the color going into the summer.

I popped dried alliums into a quick and easy table centerpiece in our sunroom:

See here I tried to get most of the “fireworks” high enough so you’re not trying to look through them while talking over a meal:

When I saw this crate said “alium” I snapped it right up. You can get a wooden crate like this too, from Mat & Janes Knobs&Knockers on eBay. The glass is from lemonade bottles:

The placemats and chargers are from Target, on a teak table. The sunroom overlooks gardens in our backyard:

The sunroom runs along the back of our house. Sometimes if you’re lucky in the mornings or evenings, you can step out there and find deer frolicking in the backyard. Lately a mother has been bringing her fawn to eat apples that are falling off the apple trees. Unfortunately this room is not temperature-controlled and it’s been a hot summer here in Chicago. We haven’t used the room much this year. I miss it, there’s so much view but it’s also very private:

The sunroom was added at some point onto the exterior of the house. See that big frame back there? I need to cover that wall with something colorful in the frame! I’m thinking abstract poppies, to remind us of our vacation to Tuscany. The allium globes here help break up all the lines in this room:

That’s it, a quick and easy natural centerpiece, perfect for a space that leads out to the garden!

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Posted in Accessories, DIY & Crafts, Garden, In Our Chicago House

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Spring Magnolia and Dogwood Table Centerpiece

Posted on April 1, 2012 by | 2 Comments

Here’s a bit more about the dining table centerpiece shown yesterday. The table has always had all hard stuff on it — ceramic, metal, wood – and it was in sore need of some soft lushness.

I saw this planter at Hobby Lobby and pounced immediately. It was perfect — celadon with just a touch of terra cotta paisleys. I also picked up a wood candlestick that fits in the middle of the planter:

I already had an Archipelago Botanicals candle that smells wonderful (Seesa here agrees), and added it:

Next I placed blocks of green floral foam around the candle and started tucking in flowers. First was a ring of cream magnolia in a ring around the candle. Then I tucked sprigs of lime green dogwood flowers and longer sprays of dark purple olive branches. (I found all of the botanicals at Michaels.)

At first I evenly distributed the dogwood and olives around the planter. It looked messy and chaotic. So I moved the sprays to only two sides, cascading down over the sides, and it looked much better. Then I tucked in a few sprigs of dark purple dyed eucalyptus (same color as the olives) around the magnolia flowers for some contrast. I didn’t want too much squeezed in here. And as a centerpiece, it needed to be low. The final result:

There is one big problem though. Do you see it?

It’s what you don’t see. What the heck happened to the candle?! It quickly got engulfed by magnolia blooms. It’s 6″ tall but it’s still too short. I would not light the candle when it’s so close to fake flowers. I used to work in a burn unit. Don’t mess with fire, folks. This will need at least a 9″ tall candle to stand above the blooms. For extra insurance, I would set a glass sleeve around it. It’s easy to light a candle and forget about it, and as it burns down it would get closer to the flammable materials. Another option is to boost up the existing candleholder and candle by 3-4″, but I wouldn’t want a flaming candle that isn’t stable.

On the bonus side, the flowers could be changed for the seasons — I could see this planter being relevant for fall and winter too. But I can be really fickle. It’s likely you’ll someday see the planter in another room, and a totally different arrangement here in the fall!

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Posted in DIY & Crafts

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