2014 Turkey Table #1: Falling For Fall

Seeing as I had so much fun plopping a random assortment of things on our table and calling it a Halloween setting the other week, I figured I’d try again- but amp it up a little. In honor of Thanksgiving- a holiday focused largely around sitting at a table- I’m going to try my hand at three different table settings with three different unique styles… but show you them one week at a time. It’ll be like a grand lead up to Turkey Day, itself. You know, to make things dramatic and such. If you’re hosting Thanksgiving this year, hopefully this will spark some ideas of your own!

So, onto the first of our 2014 Turkey Tables… I call this “Falling for Fall”. Don’t ask me why… maybe it’s just because it felt very fall-ish with all of the orange and browns. Who knows. Ok, let’s cut to the chase- here it is:So you’ll notice that each week, I use a bunch of the same elements over and over again, but each look is very unique. That’s the beauty of the combination of a few key pieces + odds and ends found around the house… the possibility of so many different “looks” without having to go out and buy new supplies for each one. Actually, all three of the table settings are made up of things I found around the house… no shopping trips needed for this activity!For this set up, I wanted to use the colors and textures that are currently outside for inspiration. The basic idea was to use a variety of whites (base table cloth, dishware, white leaves), browns (woven placemats, balls, and lantern), and oranges (runner and “place cards”) all layered on top of each other to bring together a strong sense of autumn tones.A few of those “key” items to keep an eye out for in all of the table settings: the white dishware, woven placemats (from Ikea), wine glasses, and woven balls all make appearances in other set-ups. For this particular go around, I chose a lantern we already had for the centerpiece to bring in more of that rustic fall charm.For each place setting, I grabbed a reddish/yellow leaf and simply wrote names on them in Sharpie… free and easy!

One of my favorite parts of this set-up is the contrast between dark autumn tones and bright white. I wanted to carry the leaf theme through the rest of the table, but give them a little bit of a punch to stand out against the orange-y runner (just a Pashmina scarf from my closet). Some white craft paint and a bit of drying time later and I had a handful of really elegant-looking leaves for the rest of the table. Intermixed with some woven balls and golden candlesticks, it all comes together to make quite the autumn-y collection!

So now you know most of the ins and outs. Want to see it all come together? How about in fast forward? This is the other fun part about this year’s Turkey Tables- they’ve all been filmed! So now you get to see a two and a half-ish minute version of how our table went from blank slate to Fall Fantasy. Enjoy!

So that’s about it for our leafy autumn table. As you know, fall leaves and I have been getting along nicely this season (see another project in this post), so you can imagine how excited I was to see how the table now ties in with the frames behind it! Hooray!Oh, but wait! There’s more… want to see my other favorite part? We’ll have to turn the lights off for this…

Oooo, how warm and cozy! This is how I’ll leave you, friends. I hope you have the coziest day ever. And as always, happy fall!

-Leslie