04 Apr Jump into Spring Entertaining with 5 Tips and Tabletop Design Trends 2021

Happy Spring friends! The spring season is one of my favorite times of the year. After being cooped up in 2020, it feels absolutely wonderful to be fully vaccinated and able to go out and about. April is also my favorite month because it’s David’s and my anniversary and my birthday. (Yes, we got married the day before my birthday! Makes for an extra special celebration every year.) And oh, what a glorious showcase of beautiful spring flowers and trees everywhere! Spring is also the perfect time to start entertaining…safely of course. I’m sure some of you have set a pretty Easter or Passover table. I had the urge a few weeks ago and dived into designing a tabletop to celebrate spring. There’s so much hope in the air and styling a tabletop brings me great joy. Please join me in jumping into spring entertaining, learning 5 design tips, and tabletop design trends for 2021!

Dining Trends of 2021

First off, I’d like to thank Phil Pond of Scarlet Opus for selecting my tabletop as part of “Dining Trends 2021”. I created this elegant design for the fall 2020 One Room Challenge as part of my Living Room Salon makeover. (Read about the 6-week challenge HERE. and my 7 Tips to set an elegant table HERE.) I was so grateful to partner with Cotton & Quill for the beautiful “Waldorf” textile to make the tablecloth and Replacements, Ltd. for the gorgeous china. It was so much fun!

What an honor it was to learn that Scarlet Opus, a UK lifestyle, consumer, and design trend forecaster, spotted my tabletop on Pinterest. They thought my styling was “clever and smart interior design” and selected it for one of their dining trends of 2021.

WOW – what a total and wonderful surprise!!!

I love how they thought the table setting could be used any time of the year and “perfect for crossing dining occasions”. Plus the “color palettes and styling are perfect for fine dining, more casual dining and outdoor dining.”

I couldn’t agree more and will share the steps involved in designing a more casual, yet elegant and festive spring tabletop perfect for Easter or any spring occasion, like a birthday brunch. Hmm, now that’s a good idea!

5 Tips to a Beautiful Spring Tabletop Design

I’ve been really enjoying mixing patterns and colors. So much so that our breakfast/dining nook, with its round faux marble pedestal table for four, has become like a laboratory of sorts where I can style a tabletop for any occasion. Here are my 5 tips to help you create a beautiful spring tabletop design.

1. The idea
2. The foundation
3. The mix
4. The flowers
5. The details

The idea

Select a season and think about the colors you’d like to incorporate. Sometimes you might have china on hand, or a favorite pattern you’d like to use. My grandmother’s pastel-colored plates (above) were passed down to me by my stepmother. When I first received 3 boxes with a set of 12 plates, my immediate thought was ‘I don’t even like pastels, so what am I going to do with these?’

Boy, am I ever glad I hung onto these gorgeous plates, as they are perfect for spring. The plates are really chargers and come in seven beautiful colors purple, pink, peach, yellow, green, blue, and cream. I love the center floral design and the gold filigree pattern on the band. So that was my inspirational starting point.

The foundation

Now, how can I set a pretty spring table without getting too fancy (like my fall 2020 design) but keep it a bit more casual? Then I remembered my friend, textile designer Mary Catherine Folmar of Cotton & Quill recently launched a placemat line in collaboration with Holly Stuart Home. That was the perfect solution and I was so happy she wanted to partner with me again. I absolutely LOVE her textiles and there are so many options from which to choose.

The two-sided cardboard placemats and coasters (above) feature several Cotton and Quill “Veranda” collection patterns on one side and a coordinating one-color cane print on the other. Each placemat and coaster is finished with gold gilt along the edges and protected with a matte finish for easy cleanup.

There are four designs (above) and I chose two which I felt would work beautifully with my grandmother’s china. Two things I love about these placemats are that they are reversible and are an octagon shape which adds visual interest to any table. I selected the white Pineapple and Bug design with a gray cane on the back and the green Osage Orange design with Saxon green cane on the back.

I also selected some Cotton & Quill fabric remnants to handcraft reversible napkins for my tabletop. Two Belgian linens – Fern Trellis in Greenery (middle) and Faux Bois pattern in Scallop Shell (left).

Stylishly lacquered trays and tables are also produced by Holly Stuart Home and are designed specifically to fit the placemats. Mary Catherine says, “I love that the placemats are double-sided so that you can mix and match but I really love that they can fit into the beautiful trays that easily double as tray tables,” says Folmar.

The placemat and tray collection are now available to purchase through Cotton and Quill and Holly Stuart Home, as well as retailers nationwide.

Exclusive Special Offer to our readers

In celebration of Easter, Cotton & Quill is offering a 15% discount available to you through Mother’s Day for these three beautiful textiles. The designs are hand-illustrated and digitally printed to order; allow 2-3 weeks for delivery. The tabletop design photos in this post should give you plenty of ideas for Mother’s Day, so plan ahead. (Use discount code pillowgoddess at checkout.)

Here are the links to these two textile patterns. The discount code can be used for any color of these two patterns:

Fern Trellis

Faux Bois

The Mix

Good design is all about the mix of colors, texture, and pattern. Also, high and low-priced pieces too. For my spring tabletop I not only mixed Cotton & Quill’s placemat patterns and two of their textiles, but I mixed the china patterns with them as well.

Mixing and matching china can be tricky, but I love the challenge. Confession – I can be kind of compulsive about selecting china. I absolutely adore Replacements, Ltd.’s massive collection of china and can spend hours searching, even days (and believe me, I have!) for the perfect mix of patterns. Replacements is an excellent, if not THE, number one resource to replace or add gorgeous china to your collection. (Learn more about them in my One Room Challenge blog HERE.)

I had my grandmother’s pastel plates, but I did not have any dinner, salad, or bread and butter plates to go with those colors. I decided that since the chargers were so pretty, I’d forgo the dinner plates (because we have clear ones we place on top of the chargers when we use them for dining) and focus on salad and butter plates.

Seems simple right?

Not! There are so many beautiful designs it can actually get overwhelming. I’m glad I started searching almost 3 weeks ago.

To keep it a little more simple, and affordable, I decided to go with the same green salad plate to add texture to the mix. I also didn’t want to purchase plates that could not be interchangable and used again. Plus I gave myself a budget and chose no bread and butter plate over $10.00.

The flowers

I wanted to make a gorgeous floral centerpiece as I did for the elegant tabletop for the fall One Room Challenge. I also wanted to use my vintage white Fenton Hobnail compote stand and have greenery hang down the sides. I love creating floral arrangements on our new kitchen porcelain counter and in the large, deep BLANCO sink (above). My husband was so sweet to clean up the area so I’d have the space I needed.

I bought Amaranth greens which looked beautiful cascading over the fluted side of the Hobnail milk glass compote. I also bought Dogeye cactus-like greenery, which I only learned now is poisonous to humans and dogs. So THAT’s what all that white stuff was when I cut the stems!

First off, as you can see above, I didn’t realize that Dahlias are super sensitive and they were already fading that night. And it was just too large for a luncheon/brunch-type tabletop.

Design Tip: never purchase your flowers and not have enough time during the day to properly arrange them. I had to do it late at night which was not ideal. Also keep in mind the scale of your arrangement with your tabletop design. Often times a simple vase of tulips is perfect.

Anyhoo, it was a fantastic idea in theory. In reality, it was an epic fail.

Below is the aftermath of the Oasis, floral foam.

Always have a backup plan

So I went with plan B.

Thankfully Austin Flower Company was gracious enough to replace my Dahlias the next day and Trader Joe’s (while almost cleaned out 3 days before Easter!) had enough flowers on hand to fill in the gaps. I used an heirloom crystal bowl.

We must all learn from our failures, and I am much more pleased with a smaller floral design, more fitting for an Easter or spring brunch. Don’t you think? I also love how it looks against the Cotton & Quill Fern Trellis Greenery textile in the center of the table.

Please PIN for easy reference

The details

One of the details I knew I wanted to add to my spring tabletop design for Easter, was candy-coated easter eggs, dyed eggs in the Wedgewood egg cups (although we couldn’t find the 4th cup anywhere!), and colorful French macarons from my favorite Austin bakery, La Patisserie.

La Patisserie has two locations in Austin and thankfully one of them is right in my south neighborhood. Prior to the Pandemic I would go there often for a REAL chocolate croissant and spend a morning writing my blog. But I was up at their North location (where all the delicious baking is done) and was delighted to learn that they wanted to partner with me for my Easter tabletop design.

Lucky me for walking in there at exactly the right time! I walked out with a box of macarons and 4 slices of their 6″ delicious cakes. Both sweet treats made my spring tabletop design festive for Easter Sunday!

You’re not going to believe this, but this is my very first time I’ve eaten a macaron and I am in love with them….especially with the chocolate filling. If you live in Austin, don’t walk, run to the location nearest you!

I love their packaging too. A box of macarons makes a perfect gift!

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My theory on Design Trends

I never really follow interior design trends at all. But that doesn’t mean you can’t. What I follow is what I love – color and texture. That is the best advice I can give you for design trends for 2021.

Whether you have a rustic dining area, a formal one, a countertop bar, or a breakfast/dining nook like we have, create a tabletop that brings you joy! If you do what you love and remember to tie it together with color, pattern, shape, and high and low pieces, and for me my fave, family heirlooms, you will find that you too can create a gorgeous spring tabletop.

For example, I fell in love with the dark burgundy small Dahlias. Even though my tabletop was pastel driven, I knew that color was in one of the bread and butter plates as well as the large floral center pillow. That’s why it worked.

My spring/Easter tabletop Design

Below is my tabletop design with no Easter theme. It is suitable for a spring luncheon, brunch, dinner, anniversary, garden party, or simply a Sunday family dinner or entertaining with another couple. I wanted you to see this before I added Easter decor for you to connect with what Scarlet Opus said about my elegant fall tabletop design – smart and stylish tabletops can be used for all occasions and all settings.

Design Tip: It’s the details that you add to it which make it special for a holiday like Easter or Mother’s Day or a birthday/anniversary celebration.

Last fall, I wanted to be sure that my tabletop design was not holiday-related. I’m really glad I did, because to Scarlet Opus, the color palette and styling easily translated to a table setting for any occasion from formal to casual to outdoor dining.

To change this basic spring tabletop for any occasion, add teacups on top of the bread and butter plates, or little gifts, a cluster of herbs, or party favors. Since I wanted to share my design for Easter, I placed the vintage pink Wedgewood egg cups my stepmother gifted me. And then for fun, I died some eggs. The trick was to not get the dye all over our brand new porcelain kitchen countertop!

Spring Tabletop Photo Gallery

Please enjoy several different photos I took to show you my spring tablescape design, the four place settings, the Cotton & Quill placemats and napkins, and the sweet treats from my favorite local bakery, La Patisserie. I forgot to mention that I also incorporated our clear vintage Fostoria stemware to keep the tabletop light and bright so the color and pattern would be the focus.

This image below shows the order of the layers of pattern – one of the placemat patterns, then my grandmother’s beautiful blue charger plate, the green salad plate, the banded bread and butter plate, the light pink egg cup with dyed egg, and finally, the rims of the plates against the Cotton & Quill Pineapple and bug placemat. Below that is the 2nd placemat, the green Osage orange design.

Please PIN for easy reference

I hope my spring tabletop design and easy tips have inspired you not only for Easter but for all your spring entertaining. I’d love to hear from you, so please share your tabletop ideas in the comments. All pillows in the breakfast nook are designed by The Pillow Goddess studio and available online. Please shop our designs at www.deborahmaindesigns.com.

Wishing you a Happy Spring, and if you celebrate Easter, I hope you had a lovely weekend.

Till next time, be sure to get your vaccine so you can start getting together safely with family and friends. I know my husband and I are really looking forward to small gatherings in our newly remodeled kitchen and living room salon as well as our spring tabletop dining for four! It’s time to bring on the birthday and anniversary celebrations! XO PG

NOTE: This blog post is sponsored by Cotton & Quill and local bakery La Patisserie. Photography and opinions are my own.