A THANKSGIVING TABLESCAPE

This coming Monday, October 10th is Thanksgiving in Canada, where I live. I was born in NY state (I’m still a US citizen) but I’ve lived here since I was a little girl. My father is Canadian and decided to move us up here in 1980 (yes, I realize I’m dating myself!). I’ve grown up here, I got married here, and our children were also born here also. We grew up celebrating both American and Canadian Thanksgiving, and we still do to this day. I consider myself pretty lucky to get the best of both worlds! Since we have a few days left before the holiday, I wanted to share a simple and quick theme for a Thanksgiving tablescape. How do you like to celebrate? Do you host your extended family as well as friends, or keep it small with just your immediate family? Or only friends? Whether you gather in a large group or small, you can easily create this festive look – without spending too much time and for very little cost.

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I decided I wanted to go a little further out of my comfort zone and introduce some more color in here and shake things up a little bit. If you remember my Fall home tour (click here if you haven’t seen it), I’d also used some rich colors on the table, with beautiful, deep purple figs, grapes and red pears, arranged with red and green florals.
I’m not normally one to use reds, but for this Fall season I wanted to give it a try. I’m currently using one of my favorite red lamps in our entrance (also in my Fall tour), which faces the dining room, so I wanted to play off of that punch of color again, and continue with warm tones on this tablescape.

 I was so excited to find this textured, soft red table runner to use on the center of the table. I wanted to keep the grey runners I was already using from my previous setup, and this was the perfect addition. I often use layered runners to create interest, it’s a great alternative to always using a tablecloth. Another perfect find for my table is this set of grey napkins that match the runner, with the same texture and cream border.

Keeping in mind that I’m mixing warm and cool tones here, I knew I wanted the reds to be the star of the table and everything else was to support it. With that in mind, all of the other elements needed to be crisp and cool. I found an elegant set of classic white dishes with a fluted edge, to layer with my silver chargers and square silver napkin rings. Going one step further, I also knew I wanted to use my favorite blue and white to add an unexpected pop to the warm tones running down the center. I’m in love with the contrast it creates. Lately I’ve been drawn to using fruit on my tables, as well as in my centerpieces. It’s such a simple and inexpensive way to bring the season to the table and the colors you’ll find in the produce section will provide endless inspiration. With my color palette now established, I took a quick trip to the grocery store to see what I could find that would bring it all to life. The first item I found were the oranges, and I knew paired with the complimentary color of blue, it was a big win.

Cranberries were another must, with their multitude of pinky-red tones, and then of course the pomegranates were the perfect added touch – for scale, color and their beautiful smooth texture.
Although I know most people don’t love carnations, I absolutely do! Their fluffy petals remind me of layers and layers of a gorgeous tulle gown and when pulled together in a full bunch, I find them rather elegant. I was so happy when I found two bunches in these beautiful colors that were absolutely perfect to coordinate with everything I’d already found. I was one happy girl!

This was such an easy table to pull together, and much like my previous fruit-only centrepiece (find it here), this one took me about 10 or 15 minutes to make. It was so simple. Using a crisp white square platter under the ginger jar, I arranged the fruit simply by scattering it around. No fuss. The flowers were as simple – one large bunch for the ginger jar and two small ones for the orange mercury glass vases.I filled some stemmed glasses with more cranberries and tea light candles for some added texture, color and mood – you can never have enough candles!

To balance the blue and white ginger jar, each place setting was topped with a small blue patterned plate, and I brought in my new blue velvet pillows from the living room as well.The idea was to create a warm, festive and unexpected tablescape for the season. You can absolutely use this for any occasion, I even think it would be an elegant take on a Christmas table.

So, have you decided how you might entertain this holiday season? If you don’t know where to start, take a trip to the grocery store, I guarantee you’ll find the perfect elements to create an outstanding table. Thanks for stopping by and for taking the time to read and get inspired! Happy Thanksgiving to all of my Canadian friends and family! xo

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