Happy Thanksgiving: Gathering Around a Holiday Tablescape to Celebrate

Nov 26

Thanksgiving has always been a time to celebrate gratitude, to be thankful for the precious blessings life has gifted us. This year, it seemed particularly meaningful because it was our first Thanksgiving since the “Before Times” ~ where we were gathering with friends to enjoy the peace and comfort of good food and delicious drinks. And what better way to welcome guests and mark the return to home entertaining than with a curated tablescape composition that just whispers the sentiment of the season.

For this year’s table decor, I wanted to utilize a concept used in garden design: the borrowed landscape.

Borrowed scenery is the principle of "incorporating background landscape into the composition of a garden.” While I’ve only known the term as it was referenced in my landscape design classes; more often linked with the famous naturalistic, 18th Century English gardener, Capability Brown, I now learned (while writing this post) that the term “borrowing of scenery” is Chinese in origin ~ from the 17th Century. I love learning things, don’t you? So thankful for being curious…

Here you can see that just beyond our dining room are trees whose leaves have turned gold, some red, and others who remain green.

What better backdrop to help set the stage for a warm, comforting, table design.

I was also channeling a kind of autumn, harvest, hunting or foraging experience…

I used a traditional plaid scarf as the table runner. I liked the texture and the color schematic that brought the reds, greens, and golds into play.

We are so lucky to have beautiful foxes scamper and sleep in our yard at this time of year, and I purchased Spode fox dinnerware a few years ago to mark our love affair with these playful, gorgeous, bushy-tailed creatures who light up our lives.

The plates feature a noble fox, and brown flora pattern.

The green Villeroy & Boch glasses and the red Italian wine goblets played up the table runner’s colors. I added the hefty WaterfordⓇ champagne glasses ~ their sheaves of wheat design was just too perfect!

I strategically placed faux leaves and acorns, along with my homemade mini terrariums, chocolate turkeys, gold and red mums purchased from the grocery store and placed inn petite vases and pheasant feathers on the table to enchant…

Holiday place cards with our guests’ names are perched near their setting, welcoming them in a personalized way.

I used burnished goldish-brown charger plates; gold cutlery, beige, fawn-colored Waterford napkins, copper mint julep cups used as vases, and faux pumpkins I painted gold that highlight Thanksgiving’s traditional warm palette.

The metalics and glass of the tableware and the candelabras play off of the daylight and the twinkling lights and cozy fireplace at night ~ that borrows the glittering New York City skyline just beyond ~ to create a dazzling, glamorous dining experience that is both transporting and familiar.

Here's a sweet video of how I created a Thanksgiving Tablescape inspired by a borrowed landscape brimming with autumn colors and a glittering cityscape... Enjoy!