We love making dinner feel like an experience. It not just about the food but rather the overall ambiance and feel. That’s where the table setting comes into the picture. Last year’s design included greenery and lots of glass. But this year we wanted a different feel. Over this past year, we’ve gravitated towards more natural colors and textures. We wanted to take that into this year’s table design.

First up was the centerpiece. We like to start here then work our way out to the actual settings. We found these accordion paper trees from West Elm that really had us inspired. We love the natural feel of these pieces and knew they would be a good foundation for the center of the table. For contrast, we added two bronze sculpted reindeer. They are skinny so they don’t obstruct the view while dining. Surrounding the trees and reindeer, we scattered mercury votive holders to add another design element. We also added fresh garland to the center — something that we have been using a lot of this year.

Now onto each setting — we knew we wanted to use chargers. Going along with our natural theme, we found these wood chargers that were the perfect base for each setting. We didn’t use chargers last year but wanted to make more of an impact this year. Since the chargers are dark, using white coupe stoneware for dinner and salad plates helps lighten things up. Though we didn’t want to use white bowls too. We didn’t want everything to match perfectly. We found these matte glaze bowls in the color warm sand. Together, the full setting feels very natural and clean.  There is plenty of contrast while still feeling very cohesive. We also knew that these colors might not be the typical choices for the holiday. To inject more of the holiday feel, we went with festive plaid napkins. This is also a different pattern that brightens up the setting. We finished off each setting with gold flatware. We absolutely love how it all came together. It feels festive and very inviting without being too formal. What theme are you going with this year? xo

SHOP THIS POST