Easy Red Holiday Tablescape and Floral Top

Have you started your holiday decorating? Or finished it? I know lots of ladies who religiously do their Christmas decorating the day after Thanksgiving. Personally, I need a bit of transition time. I do think quite a bit about what I’d like to do each year. To me, the fun is in creating something a bit new and different. So, this year I created a very simple tablescape that I used before leaving on our cruise. I will use this again for a small dinner party when we return.

In addition to my holiday tablescape, I’m sharing an adorable top that was a birthday gift from my amazing MIL. Through the years, she has sent me the most thoughtful–and stylish!–gifts and I have treasured every one!

During the last holiday season, I shared a blue coastal theme. That was a lot of fun and I had so many positive comments! You can view it here.

The Red Holiday Tablescape

When I am designing a tablescape, I look around for my inspiration: in magazines, catalogs and things I already have around the house. In keeping with my “keep it simple” philosophy this season, I wanted to use items I already have on hand with a minimum of shopping.

To go with my contemporary coastal theme, I decided to use gray, white and red for the tablescape design. Find a shade that you use every day in your decor and find a way to incorporate it into your tablescape. This will help create a seamless look throughout your home with touches of red here and there rather than an unnatural red popping up in just one room.

The tablescape started with two white and pale gray geometric table runners. I picked them up at Target on their discount rack some time ago. These were laid crosswise on the table.

Faux branches arranged down the center of the table create a natural setting for your centerpiece. This one consists of silver hurricane candles (a lovely gift from my Mother-in-Law for our wedding many years ago!) anchoring both ends. In between, I arranged a set of LED candles from Costco (these are perfect!) and clear tea lights. Voila! The centerpiece is complete! There really is nothing as lovely as candlelight on a dinner table, is there?

I placed two large hurricanes at each end and filled them with red and white bulbs. I love to use bulbs in my holiday decorating! There are so many pretty colors and you can use them in so many ways! It occurs to me after seeing these photos that a small red bulb with a green sprig would look lovely adorning the plates!

And speaking of plates, long ago I decided to stick with basic white ceramic dishes. This makes it very easy to create tablescapes. All you need to do is change-up the salad plate; in this case, I placed a set of simple gray salad plates atop the white dishes. The plates are sitting on inexpensive plastic woven placemats from Target.

The stemware for this red holiday tablescape is a mix-and-match collection of items. The small, two-tone glasses were depression-era from my grandma. The lead crystal stems came from my brother and sister-in-law for a Christmas gift years ago. The large red goblets are a recent (and inexpensive) set from Home Goods. I love to set a table that reminds of the many special people in my life!

The napkins are a plain red cotton style from Home Goods. Such a fun store to shop for home decor!!  A simple way to create a stylish look with your napkins is to simply fold them into thirds and lay them next to your table settings. Leave about a third hanging over the table and place the silverware on top. It’s so simple, yet so elegant! And you don’t have to worry about finding napkin rings. This is my new favorite technique!

The Floral Top Outfit

On my recent birthday (any fellow Sagittarians out there?), my Mother-in-Law sent this adorable top. It will be perfect for holiday events! It looks festive with this red holiday tablescape, and I can wear it year-round. It’s no longer available but I found two similar tops if you like this style. You can find them here and here.

Black slacks are always a favorite and at the holidays they are a workhorse piece that you can wear with any festive blouse or sweater. My personal fav is this pair from Talbot’s in a great bi-stretch fabric. Here is their latest version.

I hope you found some inspiration for creating a simple red holiday tablescape. A pretty table can truly set a festive mood.