28 Mar 5 Tips to Design a Lovely Spring Tablescape

Happy Spring friends! The spring season with all its beautiful flowers is one of my favorite times of the year. April, my favorite month, is David’s and my anniversary and my birthday in one weekend. (Yes, we got married the day before my birthday; makes for an extra special celebration every year.) To celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary this year we’ll be going to Paris for the first time in June. (I’m so excited!) Spring is also the perfect time to start entertaining. While Easter is early and Passover late, it’s never too soon to plan your tablescape. In fact, I’m hightailing it to Trader Joe’s today before all the fresh flowers are gone.  Styling a table brings me such great joy. Please join me in jumping into entertaining with 5 tips to design a lovely spring tablescape. (Note: I’ve updated this blog post, which was first published in spring 2021. You’ll be glad I did, cause it’s much shorter.)

Dining Trends

First off, it all started in 2020, when I created this elegant tablescape design (above) 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.) Phil Pond of Scarlet Opus then selected my tablescape as part of “Dining Trends 2021”, which was super exciting. I had partnered with Cotton & Quill for the beautiful “Waldorf” textile to make the tablecloth and Replacements, Ltd. for the gorgeous china. It was so much fun!

5 Tips to Design a Lovely Spring Tablescape

I love mixing colors and patterns. That, to me, is a trend that never goes out of style. I enjoy it so much 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 tablescape for any occasion. Designing a more casual, yet elegant and festive spring tablescape perfect for Easter, Passover, or any spring occasion, like a birthday brunch or anniversary, can be super easy. One of the most important things to remember is to have fun and enjoy it. Here are my 5 guidelines with details below of each.

1. The Idea
2. The Foundation
3. The Mix
4. The Flowers
5. The Details

 

1. The Idea and Inspiration

Think first about the colors you’d like to incorporate and what you have on hand. Sometimes you might have family china, 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! They are perfect for spring. They’re actually 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. These chargers became my inspirational starting point.

2. 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? I remembered my friend, textile designer Mary Catherine Folmar of Cotton & Quill 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 patterns from her “Veranda” collection 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 the place settings. Two Belgian linens – Fern Trellis in Greenery and Faux Bois pattern in Scallop Shell.

Stylishly lacquered trays and tables designed by Cotton & Quill, are also produced by Holly Stuart Home and are designed specifically to coordinate with the placemats.

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. – Mary Catherine Folmar, Cotton & Quill.

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

The discount code pillowgoddess can be used for any color of these two patterns:

Fern Trellis

Faux Bois

3. The Mix

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

Mixing china patterns 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 these 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) 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 before the One Room Challenge deadline.

SIDE NOTE: By the way, this year’s One Room Challenge starts April 1st and it’s not too late to jump in. I participated in four seasons and I highly recommend the experience.

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 used again. Plus I gave myself a budget and chose no bread and butter plate over $10.00.

I have used these green textured salad plates time and again when we entertain. In fact, I’m using them this weekend, with an Italian dinner David’s making for our visiting friend we met in Italy. They’ll be perfect for the towering Insalata Verde, from the fab NYC restaurant La Carota, so watch for it on The Pillow Goddess Instagram.

4. The Flowers

Sometimes in design, you fail, but we can always learn from our missteps, right? I love creating floral arrangements in the large, deep BLANCO sink (above) and wanted to make an elegant centerpiece arrangement in our vintage white Fenton Hobnail compote stand.

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 small tablescape.

Design Tip – Scale Matters: 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 tablescape design. Often, 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.

Design Tip: Always have a backup plan

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.

I was much more pleased with a smaller floral design. More fitting for and 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.

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5. The Details

A few of the details I wanted to add to my spring tablescape design, was candy-coated easter eggs, dyed eggs in the pink Wedgewood egg cups (although we couldn’t find the 4th cup anywhere!), and colorful French macarons from my favorite Austin bakery, La Patisserie. I love their packaging too. A box of macarons makes a perfect hostess gift!

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Design Tip: Design a Tablescape that Brings you Joy

I never really follow interior design trends at all. But that doesn’t mean you can’t. What I follow instead is what I love – color and texture.  And, in my book, color and texture are always on trend. That is the best advice I can share with you for design trends for 2024, or any year for that matter.

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

My Spring Tablescape Design

Below is my tablescape design with a spring theme. It is suitable for a luncheon, brunch, dinner, anniversary, garden party, or simply a Sunday family dinner or entertaining with another couple.

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

In fall 2020, I wanted to be sure my tablescape 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, any time of the year.

To change this basic spring tabletop for a holiday or special occasion, add teacups on top of the bread and butter plates, or little gifts, a cluster of herbs, or party favors. For the fall 2020 design I added our holiday ornaments. 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 Tablescape Photo Gallery

Please enjoy several different photos below of my spring tablescape design. 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. And lest I forget, the breakfast nook is filled with The Pillow Goddess colorful luxury pillows, which you can shop for on our website.

I hope these 5 easy tips have inspired you not only for Easter or Passover, but for all your spring entertaining. I’d love to hear from you, so please share your tablescape ideas in the comments. Wishing you a Happy Spring. I hope you have a lovely weekend with family and friends.

Till next time, 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.

The image below shows the order of the layers of pattern.

• one of the placemat patterns,
• my grandmother’s beautiful 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.

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