A Southern Country Thanksgiving Table

I love the holidays, especially Thanksgiving

the food, the company, the beautiful tables.......

Here is my favorite one I did this year!!!!

My client asked me to help him out this year with his Thanksgiving table because he has an ULTRA busy schedule this time of year.  This man has "STYLE" so I jumped at the chance because I really wanted to try out something new for me.... a Southern Traditional Look!  

My client likes the traditional style in his home decor so it's only natural to want the same at your table but, I wanted to make sure I brought a little "Q" to the table by adding handmade items from my studio and little bits of bling!  Cause you know I gotta have my bling!  So first, my client selected a fabric that made me do a double take.  I was like, oh jeepers, how am I going to work with this....lol.  Definitely would not have been my first choice but the more I looked at it, the more I felt a connection with it. Sounds cheesy, but it's true.  The more I looked at the pattern the more I saw.  I made him a round tablecloth (well a table topper actually) out of the fabric.  My biggest challenge with that was the repeat on the fabric, 13" wide and long....lots of wasted fabric because I had to match the motif.  Since we only had 5 yards I had to be very careful with my cuts.  After I painstakingly racked my brain with geometry, and a phone call to my Mom (shout out alert), I figured it out.  The table cloth fit perfectly with the perfect amount of drop all around the table.  Go me, go me....

Earlier in the week I set up a few plate combination using dishes he already had. Like I said, he's got style so I had a few options to chose from.  He's also an even bigger dish lover than me.  I know, hard to believe right?  I like to mix up the plates/bowls to add a little extra visual texture as well as creating an opportunity to introduce more colors.  This was the plating option he liked best so we went with this.  I was thrilled he chose this one because I could add the yellow from the dinner plate to my floral arrangements. His dinner party was rather large so he mixed it up by using the other plate combinations on the second table which I think added more flavor.

The floral arrangements were inspired by the tablecloth.  As I said before, the more I looked at it the more I saw.  Kind of like when you look at the clouds in the sky, you "think" you see a bunny rabbit, or a train....Well believe it or not, I saw Pomegranates.....lol.  Pomegranates have amazing burgundy and rich red tones to them.  I used that to my advantage and paired that with deep red roses. I used white alstros with burgundy speckling and yellow alstros with burgundy speckling for highlights.  Lots of greenery for a grounding effect.  I also used bright red roses for depth.  I hand dipped some of the roses in gold paint because.....that's right, I gotta have my bling.  They came out perfect.  I will post a video on my YOUTUBE channel how to dip roses later this week.  Pomegranates also have a lot of visual texture in their core, so I cut them in half put them on skewers and stuck them into the arrangement.  For the base, my client had this pretty terracotta pot that I used on one table.  I decided to use the Soup Serving Dish on the other table that matched his dish set as the vase.  Hey, sometimes you have to think outside the box.  He was super happy with the way they came out and so was I.  What do you think?

\

My favorite part of the table were the handmade gold pumpkin place cards I made in my studio.  Because we were using a lot of reds and greens in the color scheme I didn't want it to look to much like Christmas, so miniature pumpkins were the ticket.  If you'd like to learn how to create these for your fall table, check out my blog archives for " Gilded Glam Pumpkin Place Cards  ".  I also have a video tutorial on YOUTUBE. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j_kNRfvB3A   Check it out and subscribe. 

Well I hope this has inspired you to make your next dinner party the talk of the town.  Ciao of Now!

-Q-