With Thanksgiving right around the corner, my mind has turned to our Thanksgiving dinner table. More specifically, how to decorate it!
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This year, I’m going with a “rustic elegance” theme. Balancing the rustic beauty of nature with some refined elements speaks to my desire for casual comfort and a bit of glam.
To bring this idea to life, I headed to my dining room storage and then to my craft room. In the spirit of reuse and recycle, I wanted to refrain from purchasing new. Plus, I have many items I only use during the holidays, so it’s almost like going shopping in my own house!
For the table settings, I’m using a favorite vintage China inherited from my grandparents. This one is Pompadour by Theodore Haviland and it’s one of my glam elements. I love everything about this pattern: the fruit and floral motifs, the yellow scrollwork, the dark blue band and saturated colors. It’s seasonal without being too obviously Thanksgiving.
I layered the China with four other elements: a nubby brown placemat, a round burlap charger, a faux wood charger, and a white plate with brown scrolls. Under the Haviland plate, I placed a hemstitched cloth napkin in a gray tone.
Together, the layers create texture and richness, but allow the Haviland plate to be the star of the place setting.
Another idea for the place setting is to add a mini pumpkin to each plate. I’m still considering whether to do this or not, as the center design of the plate is so beautiful. We’ll see!
I also opted to use these vintage green Fostoria goblets, another glam element from my grandparents. They’re just stunning and a wonderful way to keep family memories alive during the holidays. The green also adds a bright touch to the otherwise subdued color palette.
Once I had decided on the place settings, it was time for the centerpiece. (I removed the glassware for these pics.)
One of the things that’s important to me when designing a centerpiece is practicality. There’s nothing worse than a centerpiece that blocks your view of the person across the table, or that is so big there’s no room to eat and move about comfortably.
With that in mind, I chose a design that is low and fairly narrow. For continuity with the rest of fall decor in the house, I repeated the natural elements and muted tones. This includes cream colored fall leaves that form the base of the centerpiece.
I added more depth with creamy butterscotch-colored berries and some spikey gold pompom picks. Then I tucked in a few green leaves and some battery-operated votive candles that look so pretty at night.
To give the centerpiece some height and keep it from being boring, I added a beaded, wooden cake stand in the center and placed a small pumpkin on it. The cake stand was the only purchase I made for this tablescape and I do love it! I know I’ll use it for many different things, so it’s a good buy.
The whole thing was easy to pull together once I had a plan in mind. Half the fun is playing around to see what works. And, since I’m leaving the centerpiece on the table during dinner, I could just lay the leaves and picks where I wanted them. I didn’t need to wire everything together for removal purposes.
And that is my Thanksgiving table for 2023! Simple but (hopefully) not boring, and elegant without being stuffy.
Here’s a breakdown of where I bought each element:
- Placemats: Amazon
- Burlap Chargers: WalMart (also available on Amazon)
- Faux Wood Chargers: Dollar Tree (similar on Amazon)
- Cotton Napkins: Home Goods (similar on Amazon)
- Pfaltzgraff Trellis White Plate: Amazon
- Pompadour by Theodore Haviland: Grandparents (may be available at Replacements Ltd.)
- Fostoria Goblets in Versailles Green: Grandparents (may be available at Replacements Ltd.)
- Oenida Julliard Stainless Flatware: My own, but available on Amazon
- Rustic Cake Stand: Amazon
- Battery-Operated Votive Candles: Amazon
- Faux Leaves and Floral Picks: JoAnn