Tablescape Thursday- a casual affair

This is my first time joining Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for her Tablescape Thursday. Thanks for hosting this event Susan, I've enjoyed seeing what everyone puts together and decided to jump in and try it myself this week.


Overall theme:
Although we have a long dining room table (squeezed into a tiny dining room filled with too much stuff including wine fridge, wine shelves, buffet etc...) I wanted to create something for a more intimate yet casual and cozy get-together with just one other couple. I incorporated some of my favorite things into this tablescape, including: my new antique ironstone dairy slab, burlap, white and tan linen, pewter, milk glass, white tea light candles, wicker, and crystal.


Table linens:
I started by making two short runners out of some leftover burlap and ran them across the width of the table. I added our last initial to the frayed end by using black fabric paint.


The white linen fabric down the center actually has embroidery on it in bright colors so I folded and ironed to keep it simple and white, yet contrast with and soften the look of the burlap.

Centerpiece:
The focal point of my table is my antique English ironstone 'margarine' dairy slab which I posted about here.


I used white hydrangea which I displayed in a silver Nambe pitcher. I simply placed a tan linen napkin on the platter and placed the flowers and my Nambe salt and pepper shakers with some green figs on top.

Place settings:
I found these wicker placemats at a market in Bali years ago. The pewter plates belonged to my grandmother and on top I placed my new milk glass dessert/salad plates (I'm collecting 2 plates in different styles so I'll have a mismatch set of dessert plates).




The white linen napkins were handed down from my grandmother to my mom and then to me (don't look too closely or you'll see age spots). They are folded and have pewter napkin rings on them with a lavender sprig from my yard tucked in and a fresh fig on top for some color.

The flatware came all the way from Tanzania as it belonged to my husband's grandparents. We have the full set and it's never been used (it must be over 100 years old). I know nothing about flatware but it's made by Butler out of England and I like the clean lines, as you can probably already tell I like to keep it simple.

The silver animal place markers were a housewarming gift from our close friends and they got them at the Events store in Houston.

Stemware:
No party in our home is ever complete without decanting a nice bottle of red wine. The stemware I've chosen for this table is Waterford. We will only be drinking wine at this soiree, hence there is no need for water glasses. :-)


Other details:
I love the softness of white tea light candles and also appreciate not worrying about dripping wax. I cut the grape leaves off the vine in our yard just to keep with the pops of green. I found the beaded crystal pedestal plates at Hobby Lobby last month.

Our black dining room chairs (L Hitchcock) belonged to my grandparents and these chairs have been in our family for close to 100 years so they hold a lot of sentimental value for me. They have such pretty details but I'm thinking about putting slipcovers over them for protection.

I recently made the skirted cover for the bench (leather) and am happy with the results, it softens the look of our dark table and black chairs and ties in nicely with the framed botanicals on the wall (which I made and posted about here).




Now all we need to do is open this wine and toast to a fun event!