Elegance & Simplicity Elevate This Spring Tablescape Inspiration
Create a magical Spring table setting by taking a cue from Mother Nature; one that is thrumming with her impeccable shades of glamorous green. Whether your gathering is a cozy one hosting family or friends for a seated brunch or dinner, or you’re hosting a buffet for a moving, sequentially-scheduled tribe of family guests and neighbors, you’ll want to create a welcoming table where your hospitality ~ and love ~ will be sure to delight.
Using plants is always a good table-setting idea but never more so than when spring’s blossoms offer a “look-book” of pastels, bouquets, and potted glories that will create a refreshing, uplifting mood. After the harsh and long winter that the temperate zones experienced this year, you’d be forgiven for feeling like you’re watching the Wizard of Oz when the viewing screen switches from black & white to full, glorious color!
You can find luscious cut flowers at your supermarket, your local florist and farmer’s markets and, of course, your garden.
I’ve been cutting the purple hyacinths in my garden. The royal color and the intoxicating fragrance are irrisistable. These beauties and their heady sillage grace our antique sideboard, bookending the noble peace lily that centers it this season. You can view them elevated on the white bunny pedestals. So sweet for the springtime home decor.
Purple hyacinths on white bunny pedestals for spring home decor and captivating, seasonal fragrance
While I adore glamour and luxury, I’m also pragmatic, therefore I usually always use some faux blossoms and/or foliage in my designs. It not only helps maintain the integrity of our antique wood dining table, but it’s low maintenance. The craftsmanship of today’s faux florals and greens are so sophisticated. These are not plastic! I shop the floral district in Gotham for pieces that you’d swear are real. Plus, faux can perform in ways that we should’t ask real plants to do 🙂
Always, layering is key to a memorable tablescape design. Not unlike designing a garden where you layer from trees to the understory to the perennials to the annuals and finally to the groundcovers.
With a table design, you start with the basics or necessities and build from there:
Plates
Cutlery
Glassware (with coasters, if needed)
Place Setting Name Holders
Centerpiece(s)
Then, you dream of your colors as a guiding theme. Green? Pink? I am guided by the occasion and the season ~ again, not unlike designing a garden.
I also like to use colors from across the color wheel: purple or blue with orange or yellow, for example. In the garden, that is a lovely nod to the Mediterranean ambience.
Also, I especially enjoy repurposing or using things in a new way. (bells or charms, candy, twigs, shells, dried fruit, colored eggs in the bunny eared napkins…)
Do you want to use a tablecloth or placemats? (These can be repurposed from other things especially well. I’ve used scarves as table runners and fabric store sample squares as napkins).
Lighting: We first observed at fine restaurants, but now, battery operated table lamps have become so fashionable, trendy, and affordable for home entertaining ~ luxurious and moody accessories for the barscape, tablescape and entry way; available in myriad styles from baroque to contemporary.
And I love using fairy lights ~ as part of the centerpiece, running the length of the table. The combination of demure fairy lights and the table lamps gives your table that magical glow.
I don’t use candles but understandably, they offer romance and that special ambiance. I like the look of different candle heights on display.
Just don’t use candles with strong smells. Ditto for flowers. A hint of a gourmand scent is fine but you don’t want to distract from the food.
And please, no high, big, fat centerpieces that block your guests from easy conversation and that require them to stretch to talk around.
Look-Book Inspiration
Overall, my spring tablescape is brimming with Nature’s Green spirits 🧚 💚
I punctuated the design with symbols of the season: Hope and Peace 🤍🕊️
Crisp white with green & whispers of pink, purple & cool blues. …
The Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum) symbolizes peace, purity, innocence & rebirth.
The champagne glasses & napkin rings boast Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis) which symbolize the return of happiness, purity, humility & sweetness.
And this little flower also signifies spring, renewal, & good luck 🥂 The jeweled napkin rings are Joanna Buchanan (a previous guest on Ladies Who Lunch Conversations)
This tablescape was originally created to honor my most recent Ladies Who Lunch Conversations guest, Jeanné Lewis, CEO, Faith in Public Life ~ so I wanted to bring in the peace & justice theme that also dovetails with Spring. You can read more about our moving Conversation here.
The cool blue of the plates & Easter eggs symbolize calm & tranquility.
Green table lamps, twinkling fairy lights, chocolate eggs in twig baskets along with the green magnolia plates gifted to us by family, add more pretty green table style.
When designing any tablescape I enjoy and appreciate making it work for any number of occasions. Here, the table décor glides through three happy gatherings.
Here’s a sweet Video tour of the table design 🎥
Cheers to you, your hospitality, and entertaining at home.
Wishing you a peaceful, blessed season of hope & renewal as you gather this holiday to celebrate. 🌸
