Easter Table Design

Posted on April 8, 2010 by admin_admin

The table covering was just a runner of blue paper, over which I placed ribbon-wrapped candlesticks and a paper-wrapped vase filled with yellow and white flowers.

The candlesticks I wrapped with the cutest yellow and white polka dotted ribbon. Using a lot of double-stick tape, I started at the top and wound it around until the bottom was covered and looked billowy and lovely. SO easy. Just make sure you have a lot of ribbon – I must have used 5 yards per candlestick.

mosaicee99f759b8491ae315a04485cf0abad84e64b728 I wrapped the vase with this thick Japanese-style paper that I found, and I think it ended up working really nicely with the polka dot candlesticks. You wrap a vase just like you would a present, and just cut the top corners so you can fold them down with tape and make a clean top edge.

wrapvase

Tomorrow: the brunch menu!

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Blue and Yellow Inspiration for Easter

Posted on March 30, 2010 by admin_admin

For my Easter brunch table, I have the most gorgeous deep robin’s egg blue paper to use as a tablecloth. I’m going to pair it with all shades of yellow, yellow, yellow.

Isn’t it fabulously lucky that mimosas are a light yellow? I think I might make my placecards just be pretty nametags wrapped around the stem of a champagne glass filled with a bubbly mimosa. A lovely way to arrive at a party and find your seat.

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Rose-Colored Inspiration

Posted on March 16, 2010 by admin_admin

Someone lovely sent me two dozen roses today. They’re assorted dark pink, light pink, peach and yellow, and I adore these colors together more than I expected.

I usually choose the classic monocolor bouquet when I buy roses at the market – peach roses are my favorite, with just enough pink and just enough yellow, they are frothy pieces of heaven – so this multicolor bouquet is a wonderful new bit of eye candy. Wouldn’t they be gorgeous placed in equally colorful vases?

Martha Stewart Weddings

I would pump up the volume by placing tins like these or multicolored bud vases over a turquoise-blue tablecloth and sky-blue napkins, simply folded so they don’t compete with the eye being drawn to the centerpieces. It would be a table joyously about color.

On a table this colorful, we have to make sure the food doesn’t clash. I’m thinking of using yellows of polenta and yellow peppers, greens of vegetables or salad, pinks and blues of berries and maybe some purple eggplant. This is a slightly unconventional menu, featuring an egg at dinner, but I feel like it goes strangely well with the burst of color on the table.

Menu for a Rose-Colored Table

Starter:
- Spiced Nuts
Entrees:
- Polenta with Soft-Boiled Egg
- Brussels Sprouts with Pomegranate Seeds and Walnuts
- French bread with Chive Herb Butter
Dessert:
- Red Velvet Cake or Blueberry Crisp

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Rainbow Colors Inspiration

Posted on February 12, 2010 by admin_admin

I came across this table on 100 Layer Cake and absolutely fell in love.

color

It is so gorgeous! The hues meld in perfect colorful harmony, and against the monochromatic background of white, cream and silver, the rainbow colors pop.

I especially adore the yellow persimmon on the white plates. It’s different, playful and surprising, and would be the perfect vessel for a placecard attached to a toothpick.

closeup color Photos by Erin Hearts Court via 100 Layer Cake

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Pink Inspiration to Shoo Away Winter Blahs

Posted on January 8, 2010 by admin_admin

The cold swooped into Jackson Hole today, as it did in most of the country, and because I’ve been bundled up and inside I’ve been imagining a party that is springy, girly, happy and filled with joy – i.e., PINK!

Now, I’m not really a pink kind of girl. I rarely use the color and even more rarely wear it, but in the right situation and with the exact right shade of pink, it works for me. And it works even better in the dead of cold, hideous winter when everyone wants some warmth and friendliness in their life. This shade of perfectly pale pink gives winter some color without being garishly too much.

The pinks, gold, touches of glass green and a little cheery yellow/orange make me so happy!

I would use this color scheme for a girls luncheon, a baby shower, or for a more uncommon gathering, an afternoon tea for absolutely no good reason at all. Wouldn’t it be lovely to cover the table in a very pale pink tablecloth and gold candlesticks, then use a few tiny bud vases filled with kosher salt to hold up lollipops and name cards (or if you’re really ambitious, as in the inspiration board: cupcake pops)? I’d add just a few touches of green or blue glass vases or water glasses for some pop against the pink, et voila – you’re done. Nothing to it.

Add some friends, an assortment of tea sandwiches and champagne with a raspberry at the bottom of the glass, and it’ll be a lovely party.

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Details, Details, Details

Posted on November 25, 2009 by admin_admin

Eddie Ross – remember him from Top Design? – wrote a gorgeous post about his Thanksgiving table design, and especially focused on all the little details like vintage salt cellars and mixed textiles and metals that can make a table so special. I love love love how simultaneously rich and simple the design is.

An Amber-Hued Thanksgiving

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Sweet Home Dinner

Posted on November 22, 2009 by admin_admin

It was gorgeous and a wonderful evening. Alexis was down from Connecticut for the day and stopped by to stay hi while I was stringing the flowers for the ceiling. Of course I invited her to stay for dinner, and she was such a wonderful addition to our party – and got to hear lots of stories about Fairfield (where we all grew up) that either scared or intrigued her! Ha!

It’s an artistic group, so it was really fun to create a colorful table with bouquets of color pencils over brown craft paper that begged to be drawn on. I used it as the easiest place cards ever – just wrote everyone’s names above their plates.

The flowers were simple, but added a punch of color. I bought four bunches of carnations in yellow and three shades of pink, and kept each color in its own vase rather than mixing them. It made the flowers look cohesive and at the same time, with the colored pencils, made the table as a whole very colorful.

I then strung blossoms on three long strands of thread and hung them from the ceiling for something more festive and with a little bit of South Asian flair.

We made gorgeous doodles.

mosaicc029a8a12365810ee7ba98c79040ae60c68648d2 And the food…Anna brought her gorgeous macaroons made with organic sweetened condensed milk, but I was so consumed with eating them that I completely forgot to take a photograph. Just imagine perfectly browned, chewy golden macaroons, and you’ll have a good sense of how lovely they were. Please continue for the post-mortem on my dishes.