I typically like decorate my tablescapes like I decorate my home – to the max! When there is no more room for anything else on the table, that means I’m done. I just love to keep adding to the tablescape to fill it up! Over the years I’ve noticed my tablescapes have changed, I’ve gone more is more and the reason why is because I have more stuff! Ha! It’s true, the more things you have the more you can fill up your table. I should write a blog post about the necessities you need for a tablescape, what do you think?
With spring already here, I couldn’t wait to get out my vintage Wood and Sons In The Kitchen Garden Green set – and let’s not forget my pair of The Head Gardener plates I found on eBay and shipped from England! I searched high and low for the Head Gardener plates in green and when I saw them I knew I had to just go for it. They are vintage so it’s hard to come by! The Head Gardener plates are just slightly larger than The Kitchen Garden plates.
If you want to learn how to properly set a table, click here for a graphic.
A mix of estate sales, thrifting, and new! The bird and floral tole tea-lights I believe could be Italian, I bought a few of them an estate sale for a steal! And the gold hurricanes, a charity thrift shop purchase! I saw it a few times when I went and decided by the third time, it was meant to be mine. The placemats were also from an estate sale, I think I have 12 of them!
Let’s first talk about the star of the show – the topiary bird cage that has live ivy available from Williams-Sonoma (c/o). You can keep it after even if the ivy dies, add faux florals and use it year round if you don’t have a green thumb. It would also make a WOW hostess gift for your favorite hostess or your parents! You may remember I had a similar live reindeer plant for Christmas from Williams-Sonoma.
My garden party is coming up and I’m going to add ribbons and twinkle lights and suspend them above the cocktail area.
Rose glasses are Heisey Rose I bought an estate sale from a 104 year old (who was still alive!). I thrifted the napkin rings from a charity shop. I paired them with pink (also comes in clear) etched glasses from Williams-Sonoma I used at my garden party last spring.
Isn’t the Italian flatware stunning? They are made in Italy and pewter. You may remember them from my Amalfi Coast Italian Dinner Party I hosted at the end of last summer!
I didn’t need florals, the bird topiaries were the live floral, and I also thought a bowl of fruit, from the kitchen garden would be cute in a Marlo Thomas candy dish from Williams-Sonoma. I wasn’t sure whether to use only fruit or vegetables, so I just went with both primarily because I loved the color of the radishes with leaves! They are also so cheap at the grocery store!
Another wow, is this floor length tablecloth is actually a wide width fabric from Spoonflower (c/o). The wide width cotton sateen is 116″ wide! This means you can simply cut the fabric to size for your tablecloth. I added several inches to let it drag and tuck it under. If you don’t want to sew, you can finish it with no-sew adhesive tape or simply just cut it. I used 5 yards of fabric, it was 116″ wide. The vintage rose botanical print is Design #7801246.
I imagine using this tablecloth for Christmas buffet and Valentine’s Day, maybe even Easter! Typically, floor length tablecloths are reserved for formal settings or buffets but listen, if you like the look, you like the look.
KEEP THE TABLECLOTH CLEAN TIP: #1 If you are concerned about the tablecloth getting dirty – and the pain of washing and ironing it, or sending it off to the dry cleaner, especially at this size, you could put a plain tablecloth over it that will compliment it so you only have to wash the tablecloth. That’s also why it is important to use placemats – and make sure you bring the placemat as close to the edge of the table as you can without it being TOO CLOSE that it looks strange. #2 You can order a runner so any taper candle drip will be on the runner you can replace. You can consider ordering a runner in the same tablecloth print (this is possible with Spoonflower). #3 (If you have a floor length tablecloth). Order a full tablecloth that doesn’t touch the floor in the same print as the floor length tablecloth, again another possibility with Spoonflower.
HOW TO KEEP NAPKINS WHITE TIP: Oxiclean with the nubs, leave it on over night, put it in the wash, if it’s still there, put baking soda and rub lemon juice on it and place it in the sun. The sun will bleach it, it will be crispy, then you wash it again! Vola, this was from experience with tomato soup! Love these crochet lace napkins.
I still can’t believe I found these plates! So I put the pair at the head of the table. Because Benjamin and I are the head gardeners! *wink*
You may have noticed I set out a spoon, not necessary for all table settings unless you plan to use it for soup, seafood and dessert (but dessert you might use the smaller spoon and place it up top). So I set a place setting to show you this lions head soup bowl I used at my Italian Dinner Party.
When you set a table usually you just need a fork and knife, whatever utensils you will actually use.
I hope this inspires you to think outside of pastels for Easter or have friends over for spring!
If you want to see more spring tablescapes, view last year’s garden party post here and search my party posts!
References:
- Tablecloth: Spoonflower Design #7801246 (c/o)
- Wood and Sons In The Kitchen Garden Green set
- Lions head soup bowl
- Italian flatware
- Cabbage salad plates
- The topiary bird cage (c/o) Williams Sonoma
- Silver fruit bowl (c/o) Williams Sonoma
- Crochet lace napkins
- Pink etched glasses
- Vintage rose glasses Heisey Rose
- Faux rose plant in background in wicker planters
- Dining room chairs on rolling casters with slipcovers
- Vintage: Bird and flower Italian tole tea lights, napkins rings, hurricane, placemats (similar)
Thank you Spoonflower for gifting me the fabric so I can finally have a floor length tablecloth.
Thank you to my friends at Williams-Sonoma for assisting me with my tablescape creativity and parties with their beautiful products!
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