We Need some Brightness on the Tablescape!

I didn’t have an idea for a table setting for this week but I knew I wanted something bright. We need brightness right now! I wanted to use my yellow chargers so I started there. I realized that I don’t have any yellow tablecloths so I bought this yellow gingham tablecloth on Amazon last week and crossed my fingers that it would be a gold yellow instead of a lemon yellow and I got lucky. It is a perfect match for the chargers. I really struggled with the photos for this tablescape. My iPhone 11 camera really fought with the bright colors and bouncing light and I had to make some adjustments. The gold yellow color is washed out a bit in some photos and the color shades are not the same all the way through the photos. I am still not happy with some of the results but I decided to just move on.

Once I decided on the yellow chargers and the tablecloth I went through my dishes looking for something that matched. I wanted to do a table with just yellow and white so that really limited my choices. I don’t know where I found this small yellow gingham plate, I have had it for several years. It is marked EIT (English Ironstone Tableware) and English Ironstone, Made in England.

This larger ironstone plate (I didn’t have a dinner size plate that was the right color) came from Pier 1 several years ago, the pattern was called Chloe.

This is another Color Spectrum charger by Mikasa, the color is Sun Yellow. I have wanted to use this charger in a tablescape for a long time but this shade of gold yellow doesn’t match most of my lemon yellow dishes. I bought these chargers on Ebay a few at a time because I love the quality and the colors. I have them in several colors now.

I knew that the only yellow flatware set I have is lemon yellow and wouldn’t match these dishes so I looked through the photos of my flatware sets and suddenly saw this one. Bingo! I bought this inexpensive stainless and plastic bamboo flatware set several years ago when I first started tablescaping. I can’t remember where I found it, it is just marked Stainless, China but I see it is available online several places.

I can’t remember where I bought the yellow gingham napkins a few years ago but it is amazing that the color matches the tablecloth perfectly. The flowered napkins came from Sur La Table online, I bought them on sale a few years ago. I can’t believe how well they compliment the flowered plates. At the end of the season, Sur La Table often has good buys on napkins and other tablescaping bits and pieces. I have had the beaded flower napkin rings for a long time, I can’t remember where they came from. I tried a white napkin ring first but it just didn’t add much and I suddenly remembered these, problem solved!

The white place card holder can be written on as well with a special pen. Can’t remember where I bought them but it was probably Williams Sonoma or Crate and Barrel. It’s a nice simple place card holder, I have used it several times.

The clear goblet on the right is actually the pattern my mother chose for her wedding crystal in 1938. She couldn’t remember the name of the pattern or who made it and I searched for decades trying to identify it with no luck. Finally one day I was reading through old San Bernardino newspapers online doing some genealogical research looking for information about my grandparents and I stumbled on an article about a wedding shower for my mother that mentioned her gifts and the name of her crystal! This Rock Sharpe crystal goblet was made by Libbey and the pattern was called Ridgeway. I was able to complete the set buying them a few at a time on Ebay. The gold Poly/Carb goblet on the left was made by Le Cadeaux and the pattern is called Fleur. We found them at a gift shop on one of our trips up the coast last year but they were really expensive so we only bought a few of them. I had been looking for that color for a long time and after we got home, I found them much cheaper online so I bought a few more.

I started with a white lantern for the centerpiece but it was just too much white and not terribly exciting. I did a bee tablescape last year with this bee hive pattern but they didn’t have this matching cookie jar then. I found it at HomeGoods earlier this year. I was looking around the house for anything that was a gold yellow color and finally found this cookie jar. Not really my first choice for this table but it’s all I have that is that color! I would have liked to have added the matching salt and pepper and cream and sugar but they are stored in the attic and I ran out of time. I added a couple small birds to fill in a bit.

I put the bee hive cookie jar on a small white stand to add a bit more height.

I wanted a bright cheerful table. I think this one works!

To see 160+ tablescapes that I have created please click here. If you are on Facebook, join my Tablescape Ideas group! Just click on the Facebook Search box at the top of the page and type in Tablescape Ideas. Don’t miss my Tablescaping How-To section at the top of this blog post for more tablescaping tips and tricks.

Please check out the March 2022 issue of Country Sampler magazine for a photo of one of my Spring tablescapes.

I put a new tablescape on my blog every week so please check back!

This tablescape was featured at Across the Blvd., https://acrosstheblvd.com/ , and Follow the Yellow Brick Home, https://followtheyellowbrickhome.com/ Please visit these blogs, you will enjoy them!