Thanksgiving Day is almost here! Hooray!!! Before the hungry guests descend upon the house and the busy shoppers start slugging it out in the department store aisles, it’s time to take a deep, calming breath and just relax. What better way than to snuggle in with your honey with lots and lots and lots of candlelight!!!
The last few weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind. I decided to slow things down a bit and spend a quiet evening with my husband without all the distractions of the outside world with a much needed at-home respite! I wanted to convey romance, peace and calm, so this setting did us both a world of good!
When called in for dinner, my husband was met with a bevy of candlelight on the stairway adjacent to the library.
We have dined in the library only one other time with other people. Tonight, it was just the two of us in our big leather club chairs. (To see more tablescapes in the library, click HERE, HERE, HERE , HERE , HERE, HERE and HERE.)
I’ve grown a bit weary of strictly autumnal decor. I kept the fall color palette but spiced it up with this fabulous Moroccan-style throw for the table topper with a solid black skirt. The beading on this throw is magnificent, and I really like the design. (That big ol’ reproduction Louis XVI vitrine in the background is slowly but surely becoming our home’s 3rd bar!)
It’s a little tough to discern by the photos, but the chargers are actually a rich bronze color. The dinner and salad plates are solid black. The classically folded silk napkins – a splurge for sure! – mimic one of the colors of the throw. My beautiful Hampton Silversmiths “San Remo” flatware and Godinger “Chelsea” collection crystal stemware rounds out the place settings.
With such a tiny table and so much pattern, it was hard to imagine candlesticks along with the intentionally very slender black centerpiece vase. (Notice I used a single orchid stem to keep it streamlined. Smooth black river stones anchor the orchid in the vase and keep the monochromatic black illusion alive so as not to take away from the throw’s design.) I opted for these cool copper jeweled boxes from Pier 1 into which I just dropped a clear votive candle. Just the perfect amount of romantic illumination!
I always knew this “Eiffel Tower” would come in handy for something! As my globetrotting friends set out on yet another wonderful cross-Atlantic adventure, we said goodbye with a dinner featuring tidbits of decor and cuisine they will likely encounter in “gay Paree!”
This night was a little warm, and that just brought the sweet smell of these pretty posies to the fore. Wonderful! I chose roses and carnations because they are so pretty together, and the variation in the depth of pink in the roses was interesting. Both were clipped within an inch of their little lives to create the mounding effect at the bottom of the tower and to float in the clear oyster votive cups. Stray rose petals helped to fill out the look.
To add just a bit of height and visual interest on the outside of the tower, I arranged the roses and carnations in clear vessels with a just a teensy bit of greenery.
Let me explain/confess something. (Uh-oh…this takes me back about 45 years!) My mother had the entire set with coffee & tea pots, cups, saucers, dessert plates, and ashtrays! (Don’t give me that look! Smoking was perfectly acceptable…even encouraged…by some of Hollywood’s biggest stars “back in the day.”) As a child, much like now, I loved to play house. Despite many admonitions, I decided one day to play with Mom’s Dresden set. The result: the clumsy hands of a 6-year-old were no match for the delicate china. I irreparably broke several pieces of the set, and other pieces – like the pot above – were chipped. When my Mom gave me this fractured but nonetheless loved set a couple of years ago for my own collection, we had a good laugh…quite contrary to her reaction when I ruined it 46 years ago!!!
Tablescapes at Table /Twenty-One 