Our fantastic guest expert, Sharon Naylor, gives out some great green ideas on how to decorate your holiday table:
A beautifully-designed table is a work of art. Every celebrations expert from Martha Stewart to David Tutera to Preston Bailey and every other huge name in party design works magic with flower-filled centerpieces and lovely linens, a touch of crystal for sparkle, and pretty place cards – all coordinated with masterful creative touches.
Since it’s the holiday season, you’ll likely be welcoming your loved ones to your own celebrations – be it Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas and with peak engagement season upon us, your celebration might be an engagement party or even a fall or winter wedding. Whichever joyful occasion calls friends and family to your home, you can work your magic in designing a gorgeous tablescape that’s also gorgeously green and eco-sourced.
Here are the top ways to create a beautiful tabletop design that will delight your guests:
- Choose eco-smart linens. All of the big home décor stores have giant sales right now on tablecloths and matching napkins, and it’s not difficult to find tablecloths made with eco-friendly materials. At Bed Bath & Beyond, for instance, you’ll find an enormous selection of Evolution tablecloths made from 100% recycled water bottles spun into soft polyester yarn (spilled water or wine beads up!) in pretty holiday colors such as sage and berry. At specialty sites, like Bambeco, you’ll find colorful and patterned tablecloths and napkins made from 100% Turkish cotton and low-impact dyes. Since guests will touch napkins and tablecloth fabrics, these eco-smart linen choices add the element of fine texture to your table, the perfect foundation for your pretty tablescape.
- Add a runner. A wide swath of colorful fabric running lengthwise across your table adds a visual punch, and an extra layer of visually-interesting texture [and texture is the big trend for tabletop design right now! Mix and match for added Wow Factor!] Look for bright, vivid table runners made of bamboo for that pop of hue and an all-natural texture. At Bambeco, for instance, the textured weave and rich earthly colors of real bamboo and low-impact dyes coordinate with your tablecloth choices. A top holiday color scheme is a green linen overlaid with a tan or brown runner…you’re not limited to red and white for the holidays. Natural hues are in.
- Use heirlooms. Setting your table with your mother’s or grandmother’s prized special occasion tablecloth adds vintage appeal to your tablescape, and you can further save your budget and the planet by borrowing one or more sets of family-owned china or coordinating place settings. It’s a big trend now to mix and match different sets of plates and chargers (the colorful plates set under your guests’ plates for a pop of hue,) creating a unique look that brings family history to your table. Other items to borrow: silver or glass platters, tiered plates, and candlesticks.
- Create herb-centric centerpieces. You might have grown the herbs in your greenhouse or sourced them at an eco-smart store, but
your centerpiece becomes herb-centric and heavenly-scented with an array of big, shiny bay leaves that suit the holiday style. A bay leaf bouquet can be inserted with stalks of rosemary or wispy stalks of chives…and you might even make your centerpiece using herbs you have left over after preparing your holiday turkey or meal. - Use locally-grown, in-season flowers. Talk to your florist or nursery owner about the many different, unique kinds of flowers that can be used in your décor. You’ll discover some varieties outside of the usual rose that make your flower décor earth-friendly…and just pop a few little blooms into your herb centerpiece. No need to overdo it with a huge floral centerpiece.
- Gather centerpiece items from your yard. Nothing says fall fabulous like pinecones and smooth, tan-colored stones…both top trends in autumn and winter décor for free. If you have leftover evergreen branches from your DIY holiday wreath, add some sprigs to your herb-and-flower centerpiece for additional texture.
- Use a variety of vases you already own. From bud vases to rounds to taller vases, your own collection – or ones borrowed from family – lets you create pretty table décor for floating flowers and flower bunches.
- Burn eco-smart soy candles. An elegant table flickers with the lights of votive and pillar candles, so shop sensibly at your favorite sources of soy candles. If you have a local source for these, a fair trade source, or buy from a charity that supports third-world artisans, all the better.
- Make placecards with recycled papers. Buy them from the craft store or office supply store, or get crafty by cutting up colorful papers you have around the house. Attach little sprigs of herbs to coordinate with your centerpiece, and also affix little sprigs of herbs to your borrowed or bamboo napkin rings.
- Keep it simple. The gorgeously-decorated tablescapes you see on magazine covers show just the set table, with nearly all the table surface covered. That’s quite pretty, but if you crowd your tabletop with décor items, there’s no room for your soup tureen, your platter of organic zucchini casserole, your turkey and your home-baked bread. A simpler table with just a few well-designed décor pieces is a more functional table that allows for your bounty of healthy dishes to play a starring role in your gorgeous tabletop design and give guests plenty of room to eat and drink comfortably at their seats.
Sharon Naylor is the wedding and celebrations expert in our Gorgeously Green Dream Team and is the author of 1001 Ways to Save Money and Still Have a Dazzling Wedding, in addition to over 35 wedding books, www.sharonnaylor.net.
