It's finally feeling like fall, making it the perfect time to share a cozy, festive meal with family. I recently hosted a small brunch and loved an excuse to bring out my grandmother's china, which features a cobalt border.
For the table, I wanted to lead with that same blue. It truly doesn't get much more classic than blue and wh--but it's FALL! What about yellow, burgundy, brown and orange? Let's all take a deep breath.
While it is fall, I fought the urge to shred hay all over the dining room table (that's what Pinterest wants, not what your guests want) and challenged myself to do fall without the traditional fall palette.
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Rather than focusing on the colors (admittedly, I did use a few small pops of orange), I thought about other things that shout "fall". To me, that means earthy and rustic elements, as well as cozy textiles.
So, even though my tablescape was built around blue and white, and refined, traditional china, it was also about flannel, frayed edges on the napkins and a moss-covered terracotta pot.
The jumping off point was two yards of flannel from the fabric store which set me back a whopping $10, because I caught it on sale. From that fabric I had just enough for a runner and six napkins.
I didn't even sew the runner or napkins, I simply left the napkin edges slightly frayed and ironed the runner to tuck the rough edges on the underside.
A plain, white linen table cloth is a great staple and provides a nice base layer for many table settings. I highly recommend mine, which is nothing fancy and from Ikea.
Because I was using a runner and a rectangular table, three small arrangements seemed about right, with the tallest in the middle. To get started, I took out a variety of bowls and a pot, as well as mini pumpkins I had leftover from my fall mantel.
Something that always makes professional flower arrangements stand out from those done at home is the use of greenery and fillers. I feel like the floral department at my grocery store never has any greenery but plenty of flowers. There really needs to be a generous leafy back drop to make the flowers stand out.
While my local Giant didn't win in the floral department, I knew the white acorn squash in the produce section would be great on the table. After picking those up, I headed to Trader Joe's, which has the best floral options of my local groceries, as well as a decent selection of leafy fillers.
In addition to the greenery, I opted for white hydrangeas and blue snapdragons. This is pretty typical for me. As a total floral amateur, something I lean on is limiting my colors. (I often find myself getting three different types of flowers in the same color for a vase arrangement because it's so much easier to make it look fancy and thoughtful than when you combine a wide variety of colors.)
I also used some faux florals for a low-key cascading effect. The great thing is that I can reuse these in later arrangements and they're much more convincing than if I were to get larger flowers that were faux. I got these at Michaels, where I also purchased floral tape.
Very important disclaimer: Everything I know about floral arrangements, I have learned from taking home centerpieces from people's weddings, baby showers and parties. So, the following is a trick I picked up on after dissecting flower arrangements as I threw them away.
Once I decided on the three containers I was going to use, I made a grid with the floral tape. Floral foam is also great, but it can get kind of stinky and moldy after a few days. *Uncomfortable pause* or does that just happen at my house?
The grid ensures the stems don't just flop around haphazard when you are arranging and gives a surprising amount of control and stability to the arrangement. I used the grid technique for all three containers.
I set the table and did all fabric cutting and ironing of the linens before I dove into the floral side of the operation. So, once I had my three arrangements complete--two in wide, low silver bowls and one in a taller, rustic pot--I moved them to the table and tszujed with the acorn squash and mini pumpkins.
Et voila, my autumn tablescape was complete. There is life beyond burgundy this time of year. Live boldly, my friends!
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