A California Poppies Tablescape — Whispers of the Heart

I have always loved California Poppies and I have wanted to create a California Poppies tablescape for several years now but it took me a few years to gather it all together. I found this California Poppies tablecloth at Spoonflower online a few months ago. You can find tablecloths with poppies on them but California Poppies have a distinctive look, color, and shape, and I was so happy to find this tablecloth at Spoonflower online. I love Spoonflower tablecloths but this is the last one I will buy there. They have recently raised their prices and their tablecloths are now just too expensive.

I have looked for six salad plates to match this design for a few years now. I need six settings for my tablescapes and I just couldn’t find the last two plates with this design. If you look at the entire table closely you will see that a few of the plates don’t match the others. I finally found a fifth plate that was larger than the other four, (it is shown here) and another plate larger than this one with handles and I decided to go ahead and do the tablescape with them. Sometimes if you look closely at my tables there is an odd plate or two in the back of the photo that doesn’t exactly match the other salad plates when I can’t find six that match. If you look closely at the first photo here you can see the three different salad plate designs. One plate is smaller than the plate in front and the other one in the back left has handles. All the plates have a hand-painted poppy design on them and they are signed by the artist. This one is signed K. Obet and on the back of the plate it is labeled P.T., Bavaria, California Poppy, Handpainted. It is vintage 1920. The other salad plates are marked the same or Nippon, Handpainted. These plates are not to be used for food, they are just for show and they would be removed before the food is served.

This is a Fiesta dinner plate and the color is Butterscotch. I bought them a few years ago on sale at Smith’s in Salt Lake City. I bought six and now I wish I had bought more. I have this dinner plate in several different colors now and they are in constant use on my tablescapes. You can read about what you need to think about when you are buying dinner plates here.

I bought these iced glass sage colored chargers at Pier 1 several years ago after I saw them on another blog. I love using them in the spring and the fall. To read about what you should be considering when you are buying chargers click here.

I am using my Madeline Green flatware on this table, I bought it at World Market several years ago. I really like the frosted design on the handles. It is one of my most used flatware sets. If you are developing a tablescaping collection be sure to find some flatware in a green color like this set. You will use it often! You can read my blog post about what to consider when you are buying flatware here.

I think I bought these green cotton napkins at either World Market or Pier 1 several years ago. I can’t remember where I found these orange wood napkin rings but it may have been Ebay. To read about the What, Where and How of napkin rings please click here.

I decided to use my Oleg Cassini clear glass place card holders on this tablescape so that the tablecloth colors would show through. I bought them at HomeGoods several years ago when I first started tablescaping. They are heavy and solid and I really like the simple design. It’s handy to have a clear place card holder to use when you don’t have one to match your colors and theme. Whatever color or colors the tablecloth is will show through. To read about the what, where and how of place card holders, please click here.

The green acrylic goblet on the left came from Pier 1 several years ago. You can read my blog post about what to consider when you are buying goblets for your tablescaping collection including the colors that I use most often here. I found the California Poppies glass on the right at an antique mall in Cayucos on a trip up the coast a few months ago. I saw two in one store and I was so disappointed that there weren’t six so I moved on but at the next store, suddenly there were six for sale together! Serendipity! I really don’t think that they are vintage but I love them.

I found these California Poppies at Silk Flower Depot online. It was the only place I could find poppies that actually looked like California Poppies. The large white pottery vase is one of a pair that I inherited from my mother. She received them as a wedding present in 1938. I have used this vase several times on my tablescapes and it is very special to me.

I have a funny story about California Poppies. They are wildflowers and they can grow everywhere. In the spring the California hills can be full of them. And you can find them on the side of the road, in sidewalk cracks, a patch of dirt, anywhere, they just seem to grow wherever. I love them and I have tried to plant them from seed several times with absolutely no luck, no luck at all. It has gotten to be a family joke. They are everywhere but I can’t grow them. So, instead I created a tablescape full of them!

To see 260+ 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.

If you live in Southern California join our Facebook tablescaping group Southern California Tablescapers BTS Group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/440356398581157 We are planning a gathering for tablescapers next year in January.

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