Tablescaping DIY, Part 1, Developing a Theme

My tablescapes usually start with an idea or theme. Many people create generic table settings with special dishes and a flower arrangement and/or candle centerpiece and these can be really pretty but there are many of them online now and they tend to blend together in photos. Others create themed table settings and these can be lots of fun to create and sometimes they are really unusual and grab your attention. My tablescapes are mostly theme related and they usually include several elements that are tied to the theme.

I start with an idea and sometimes it will take as long as a year to gather all the elements to carry out the theme on the table. The searching can take that long but it also spreads out the budget for the table and that can help keep the costs down. I usually have several different themes that I am thinking about creating and working on at any one time to find items to carry out the theme. This table started with some card plates and a large dice I found at a garage sale. I already had the vintage tablecloth and so an idea for a tablescape was born! But it took several months before I gathered all the other theme elements. This Playing Cards Table is always an attention getter. To read more about this table please click here.

The focal point on the table is the centerpiece and it can make or break the success of the tablescape. The two elements I start with are the centerpiece and the salad plate because it is on the top of the plate stack and that image will be repeated around the table. It’s those two elements that can visually set the theme for the table and create the unity you need for the table setting. There are so many different theme ideas, the sky is the limit. You can do holidays, seasons, food, insects, travel, ocean, beach, animals, and special interests like camping and hobbies.

Sometimes I will think about a table theme and then try to find all the elements to carry out the theme. These salad plates were the last element I found for this Lobster table and I was beginning to wonder if I would ever find the right salad plates but these were perfect.

Sometimes I will find a special themed salad plate and that discovery will start the theme I want to create. You can read more about this tablescape here.

One Christmas I suddenly found a Grinch salad plate and at almost the same time, a Grinch cookie jar that I could use for the centerpiece, so that tablescape was off and running.

It was not a theme that I would have thought of but the items I inadvertently found suggested the theme. I am constantly looking for unusual large objects that can serve as centerpieces. You can read more about that tablescape here.

Hubby once found a lighthouse lamp at a garage sale and we removed the lamp part and I put it on a stand and used it as the centerpiece on a lighthouse themed table.

I bought a larger bowl shaped like a shell at HomeGoods as soon as I saw it because I realized that it could be used all summer long on different summer table settings.

I also have generic centerpieces items like lanterns and candle holders that can be adapted for different theme tables with the addition of decorative elements.

Cookie jars can be a perfect centerpiece, I have used them many times.

I usually divide my table ideas into seasons, Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall and purchase accordingly. For example, buy items like napkins in fall colors that can be used on table settings starting in the Fall through Thanksgiving. When you buy an item for a tablescape think about how you can use it on different table settings and try to purchase items that are versatile, that way you won’t have to purchase so many. I try to store things by season too which makes it easier to find them.

Think about what theme you want to create on your table and then start slowly looking for the elements to illustrate that theme.

To see over 220 different 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 (or here) for more tablescaping tips and tricks.

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