Seasonal Tablesettings
With some key pieces and white plates you can create tablesettings for every season with a few accent pieces. Clear glass pedestals, large clear vases, chandelier globes and cloches can be filled with everything from spring flowers to fall fruits to holiday ornaments and pinecones. Pair these with handmade items and thrift store finds for stunning tablesettings all year long. Here are the sample settings from Achievement Night:
Spring - An Easter Table
This setting was inspired by the salad plates from Goodwill with lemons and blue flowers. The pedestal is made by gluing a clear plate to a glass candleholder. A half styrofoam ball is covered with artificial daisies and set on top of the pedestal on a doily covered tray with lemons and daisies underneath. The favors are clay pots painted and turned upside down with a small styrofoam ball glued inside and a daisy stem pushed through the hole and into the foam. The napkins are folded like a bunny. You could use a ceramic or stuffed bunny on top of the pedestal and colored eggs underneath for a more Eastery look!
Spring - A Mother's Day Table
This setting starts with books stacked in the middle for a centerpiece with a teapot (or you could use a sculpture or flowers) on top. The napkins are folded into a rose in the center of the salad plates. The favors are Goodwill metal picture frames with scrapbooking paper instead of a picture and then the menu written in window markers on the glass. You can take these home and use as a message center or grocery list. The marker washes off with a damp cloth.
Summer - A Fourth of July Picnic
An All-American celebration starts with a large vase of peppermint candies and pinwheels made from double sided scrapbooking paper. It sits on a red bandana and blue bandanas are used for the napkins. The napkin rings are made from a paper towel tube cut the width of the red and white striped ribbon which is glued around the tube. Pint mason jars are used for glasses and the favors are jelly jars filled with peppermints and a flag and sparklers with a round cardstock printed sparkler holder from the internet. Matchboxes are covered in coordinating scrapbooking paper.
Summer - An Herb Garden Supper
This eye-popping setting uses a centerpiece of clay pots and herb plants. The placemats and napkins are terrycloth washcloths. Scrabble tiles spell out the placecard names and inexpensive hard plastic bowls (Walmart) sit on the plates. The look is rounded out with Reeses Pieces carrots which I topped with tissue paper foliage and some twine.
Fall - A Thanksgiving Table
This simple look follows the trend of burlap with a tan burlap runner. The placemats were ugly cork-backed hard mats from Goodwill that I sanded and then sprayed with several coats of chalkboard paint (use chalk to write thanksgiving wishes or happy birthday or the menu, etc). The leaves in the bowls are felt sewn to pinked cut fabric along the vein lines. The pumpkins are made from crushed velvet and rope and interspersed with chandelier globes turned upside down and filled with nuts and artificial twigs.
Winter - A Holiday Tea
This is a dainty setting for a holiday morning tea complete with an embroidered table topper, vintage hankerchiefs in the middle and for napkins and teacups (for tea here but could serve chicken salad or a first course soup in them also). The centerpiece is a cloche made by turning an inexpensive glass vase upside down and gluing a doorknob to the bottom. Fill it with ornaments and sprinkle a few around the base and in the teacups (you could also fill this with artificial fall fruit, pinecones, etc.).
Have fun setting your seasonal tables using what you have, inexpensive thrift finds and handmade treasures!