Well, hello November. You came out of nowhere!
For myself, November 1st is when Fall truly begins here in Columbia, South Carolina. In October, we're still battling temperatures in the high eighties and just a few leaves on the ground. But November finally brings about some slightly cooler weather and warm tones to the trees and ground.
And Fall brings about more entertaining more us. With the exception of Christmas, a Fall tablescape is my favorite to plan for. It's so easy to bring in elements from the outdoors to create a lush and full table: leaves, pumpkins, branches. Just venture off into your backyard and you'll find what you need for an Autumnal tablescape.
Whether its for Thanksgiving lunch or an intimate November dinner with friends, here are a few of our styling tips for dressing a Fall table.
We picked up some unique flowers at Bloom and Bottle in Charlotte, NC a while back, including pampas grass, protea, and artichokes. Yes, artichokes! Who knew they would make for such a striking floral stem. Side note, if you're around Charlotte I definitely recommend checking out Bloom and Bottle. It's a small bar with a lovely selection of cut stems so you can build your own arrangement. What's better than picking out your own cut stems while enjoying a glass of beer or wine?
We actually ended up drying out all of the flowers by hanging them upside down in the guest shower for a couple of weeks. While the pampas grass dried out quickly, the artichoke took a while, but it turned out to be such a unique piece!
The table started with a single stem of pampas grass in a simple glass vase. I wouldn't go crazy with pampas grass as they do tend to shed. Then we layered more dried stems around, laying the dried artichoke and protea directly on the table, while placing eucalyptus in a smaller vase. I love seeing what colors dried flowers take on. Don't think that they'll all be brown, you'll get beautiful shades of sages, taupes, creams and even some pink undertones.
My advice for setting a centerpiece on a table is to layer, layer, layer. Instead of just one large vase in the center, go for some vases or jars in different sizes . Different heights and fullness create so much more added interest on a dining table. I will always go for a dining table that looks overloaded versus a bare one.
We used a mixture of our own grey and white Vietri Lastra dinnerware, which can easily take itself from spring to fall, around the table, mixed in with copper mugs and natural wood serving pieces. A new piece we recently picked up is the Prospect Ice Bucket from Crate & Barrel. We love the style of this glass canister fashioned with a wood base and top - how perfect for a natural inspired tablescape.
For the napkins, we made our own out of our Bara Bazaar fabric in Viridian. If you know the basics of a sewing machine, this is an easy project to create where you just topstitch a hem around the edges. With just a yard of fabric, you can easily make six napkins. The Bara Bazaar fabric gave this table the perfect little touch of unexpected whimsy. Even though this is a more sophisticated textile design, it makes the table a little more fun and intriguing. What better way to set your table apart than with custom linens.
Lastly, we added our neutral khaki and white tassels onto each place setting with matching taper candles around them. For a more personal touch, finish off the tassels with a hand-written name card that is tied onto them.
Interested in turning any of our fabrics into custom table linens? Reach out to us at hello@posthouseco.com and we'll get the conversation started.
Photography by Crush Rush