Fall-Thanksgiving Table Setting-2017

Albert Camus once said “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” I love the colors of fall and using them in my home, especially the ones that occur naturally…browns, golds, moss greens, burnt oranges. Hence, the inspiration for my Fall-Thanksgiving Table Setting.

When one holiday ends, another begins here…immediately! After waking up from the sugar coma from Halloween, I get busy working on my Thanksgiving table setting. Typically, I start with the centerpiece to set the color palate. This year, I bought the moss arrangement to use on my table year around, so I wanted to work with it for this table setting. It is totally natural and provides wonderful, organic texture. I really like using in lieu of using fresh flowers, which I think is a must usually.

Velvet pumpkins have become quite the rage over the last couple of years and I stepped right onto that train. I chose brown to compliment the moss green. After all, God created our trees with brown trunks and green leaves…I am just sayin’! I recommend using a variety of sizes so you can easily layer them and bunch them together. There seems to be a huge range of pricing for the velvet pumpkins, but I bought mine at Hobby Lobby at the end of last year’s season very inexpensively. I found some great alternatives shown at the end of this post.

For the place settings, I started with one my most favorite neutral napkins that I have (had for years!). Using napkins instead of placemats really adds interest to the table rather than the traditional rectangle shape of a typical placemat. Plus, there is a much more expansive variety of napkin selections as opposed to placemat options. The rattan chargers and white plates should be staple in any any home. The challenge came with identifying the “finishing touches”, but that is where the adventure turns really turns fun and lights up for me!

Everything started with the pumpkins on the salad plates, which I found at Hobby Lobby. HOWEVER, the big find was the salad plates…from Walmart…for only $4.38 per plate!!! Click here to see! In my constant quest to find affordable, dramatic table accessories, I really felt like I hit the jackpot with these “hand crafted” plates! With their green and brown tones, they absolutely are the one piece that really tied everything together. Another big find was the moss green napkins and pine cone napkin rings that I discovered in the clearance section at Pier One. Never, ever pass on checking out the clearance section!

The final element to mention here is the glassware. Typically, I try to make sure that the glassware is not too “matchy” (I am confident this is not a real word, but I am running with it!). The 24 karat gold lion glasses where each hand made and individually signed by the artist. They were given to me by my mother and I relish any opportunity to use them for these special occasions. Years ago, I purchased the antique gold, etched glassware from a local antique shop and use them all the time.