I created the following place setting and tablescape for tomorrow’s Centsational Girl/Homegoods Holiday Tablescape Contest. Well I created it for that contest and for my own Christmas decorations.
The inspiration for this particular project was the snowy woodlands of Western North Carolina. But enough chit-chat let us take a look and we can discuss more after a few photos.
The idea was to design a tablescape that embodied the spirit of Homegoods based on style, affordability, and creativity. I hope I achieved all three. I actually went to Homegoods/TJMaxx to scope out what they were doing for the holidays. I wrote about their trends here and then went ahead and followed none of them.
While, it was NOT even implied you needed to purchase a product from Homegoods I happened to fall in love with the tiered display item I used as a centerpiece. I’m not even entirely sure what its intended use is, but I loved the fretwork and patina, which immediately put me in mind of the outdoors. Since the cold weather at Christmas leaves us stuck indoors, I thought it would be great to bring the outside in. Live moss, old branches, vines, and fluffy snow decorate mirrors that mimic the cool streams of the mountains. Glass cardinals give a nod to North Carolina (State Bird) and add some pops of color for Christmas. Here are some more details:
You’ll have to be the judge as to creativity and style. However, I can attest to the affordability! Most of the tablescape is constructed with items my son and I gathered while wandering the neighborhood. I already had plates, red glass balls, some mirrors (candle mirrors), and fake snow (from a previous Christmas). I really only purchased the tiered stand, some new napkins, and the glass cardinals. Altogether it was much less than $50 and I have plans to reuse the stand all year long.
If you would like to construct something similar here’s a quick guide to how I created the tablescape.
- I laid out the main objects. The white “runner” is a cut open trashbag. I wanted to use the bare wood of the table but protect it from the damp moss and branches. You can see my “helper” supervising in the background.
- I wanted an organic centerpiece so I cut the plastic to both wrap around and touch certain place settings. BTW, if you hadn’t noticed there is a two year old helping me create this. So I can attest the main layout doesn’t take long at all.
- I took various types of moss, lichens, and branches and laid them to follow the curves of the outline and act as stream banks for the mirrors. In case you worried we only gathered small sections of moss since it takes forever to grow. I wanted to make sure not to denude the neighborhood. Most of the moss will get replanted in a few weeks too.
- I filed in the open areas with snow. I tried to mimic the natural way snow lands and melts to let some of the landscape show through.
Not shown: Other steps involved adding my red accents, switching out various colors of dishes. Though I only own one set of fine china, and an everyday set of white and green. So there wasn’t much in the way of trading the plates out. I took the red napkins and twisted them into bow shapes to place in the bowls instead of using traditional napkin rings. While, offsetting the plates to give a modern edge to the tablescape. Finally, I want to note that I had some store bought vines and lichens (from previous crafting projects) that I used on the plates and chair decorations. I figure guests want to enjoy nature without tasting it.
