blue & brown tablescape

Float Like a Butterfly

/ Alycia Nichols / 66 Comments

The color brown has its ups and downs when summer rolls around. We don’t want brown grass or leaves hanging around, but we do want that famed Coppertone® brown skin. (As a doctor’s wife, I’ll fuss at you sun worshipers about the dangers of that at another time! 🙂 ) I don’t think brown is a color we generally associate with summer when it comes to decorating, but I hope to dispel that notion.
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INSPIRATION PHOTO - EA BRIDE

INSPIRATION: Photo by Angie Weston of Design and Capture Studio

My work was featured in a local bridal magazine, EA Bride, a couple of years ago. I continue to marvel at the work of other designers whose work appears in the magazine with each passing issue. The photo of this grapevine ball in the Summer 2012 issue of the magazine really caught my attention, and I decided I wanted to create something similar someday. That someday finally came to pass a couple of weeks ago.

Tablescapes at Table Twenty-One: Float Like a Butterfly

Tablescapes at Table Twenty-One: Float Like a ButterflyBrown. Yes, that’s what I said…brown. A brown full-length linen is the foundation of this summer tablescape. Like black, brown is a neutral that has the capacity to make other colors snap, crackle & pop.

Tablescapes at Table Twenty-One: Float Like a Butterfly

Tablescapes at Table Twenty-One: Float Like a Butterfly

Tablescapes at Table Twenty-One: Float Like a Butterfly - Flatware, Rim Shot collageAn April Cornell table runner and napkins marry brown with vibrant, yet muted shades of seafoam blue. Two square acrylic chargers – one in an icy blue, one in a coppery brown – play off of the linens. Soft seafoam blue dinner plates from TJ Maxx round out the stack. The faux mother of pearl-handled flatware is from Target.

Tablescapes at Table Twenty-One: Float Like a Butterfly - StemwareWhen I found this fabulous ocean blue color of stemware at Stein Mart a few years ago, I was absolutely smitten. Still am!

Tablescapes at Table Twenty-One: Float Like a Butterfly - Grapevine balls wrapped with Oasis MEGA Beaded Wire in "Ice Blue"

Tablescapes at Table Twenty-One: Float Like a Butterfly - Grapevine ball wrapped in Oasis MEGA Beaded wire in "Ice Blue", dotted with hydrangea blooms and butterflies

Tablescapes at Table Twenty-One: Float Like a Butterfly - Butterfly, Beading, Urn collageI found the large cream-colored urns at Michaels. A grapevine ball is wrapped in Smither’s Oasis MEGA beaded wire in “Ice Blue”. (This beaded wire comes in 11 amazing colors!!!) I used a dab of hot glue to semi-permanently affix softly-tinted blue & green faux hydrangea blossoms. Pretty hand painted aqua blue silk butterflies generously given to me by the good people at Beau-coup.com “float” about. (These graceful beauties also come in green, lavender and pink!) I love the way they transform the centerpiece and add to the 3-D look!

Tablescapes at Table Twenty-One: Float Like a ButterflyBetween the two urns sits a trio of smaller grapevine balls trimmed in butterflies and beading much like its big sisters. I didn’t even bother to cut the beaded wire…it’s just one continuous string wrapped around the three orbs. (Students…remember our golden Rule of Three? Look at this picture!!!:-)) These would be so easy and economical to make for wedding reception decor!!!

Tablescapes at Table Twenty-One: Float Like a Butterfly - Buddha, Votive, napkin pattern collageTaibei Buddha figurines in seafoam blue from Burlington add to the peaceful aura of the tablescape. Mercury glass votive holders in a blue ombre design are scattered all throughout and around the base of the centerpiece to provide ambient light.

Tablescapes at Table Twenty-One: Float Like a Butterfly - buffet with bonsai trees

Tablescapes at Table Twenty-One: Float Like a Butterfly - Pillar candles with rhinestones from Z Gallerie

Tablescapes at Table Twenty-One: Float Like a Butterfly - Buffet candles collage

Tablescapes at Table Twenty-One: Float Like a Butterfly - Bonsai treeThe buffet is lightly adorned to complement the peaceful nature of the dining table decor. Bonsai trees anchor each end. The center decor is made up of two brilliantly-colored Z Gallerie pillar candles flecked with similarly colored rhinestones. The pillar candles sit atop broad iron candlesticks from Hobby Lobby. A trio of votives, like those on the table, act as a visual connect between the bonsais.

It was much too cold and windy the days I worked on this blue & brown summer tablescape, but imagine it outside at dusk. Thanks to the chocolaty brown tablecloth, everything on top of the table would just kind of float in an ethereal fashion. Like sea foam gently rolling over sand. Cool, huh?

Still don’t think brown is a summer color? 😉

Other blue & brown posts on this site:
“Autumn Blues”
“Zen Garden”
“Mum’s the Word”

Other tablescapes with an Asian-inspired theme on this site:
“Peaceful Peonies”
“Mikasa Daylight”
“Mandarin Bling”
“Copper Zen”
“Morocco for Two”
“Year of the Rabbit”

I’m joining these fun link parties this week, and I hope you’ll come along!:
Jessica’s “A New Creation”
Cuisine Kathleen’s “Let’s Dish!”
Susan’s “Tablescape Thursday”

Also check me out at BeBetsy.com!

Ladies’ Luncheon/Ladies’ Dinner

/ Alycia Nichols / 44 Comments

I have 2 good friends that I have known and loved for most of my life. I met Monica in the 6th grade at St. Louis Catholic School, and we both met Audrey our freshman year at Bishop Hogan High School. (Go Rams! 🙂 ) Life, of course, scattered us around for a lot of years after graduation, but we started getting together several times a year for lunch and chatter about 15 years ago. We’re still at it!
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I hosted the girls at our home this past weekend for what turned out to be a 5-hour chat & chew marathon. I set the table up on Friday as a dinner table for four, then converted it on Saturday to a simple but pretty luncheon table for the three of us.

I set up in this sunny south window in the family room. I have been anxious to use this wonderful sky blue floor-length linen that drapes so beautifully. (The intense sunlight is turning that linen into a naughty little see-thru like somebody’s-dress-at-Sunday night’s-Oscars-who-shall-remain-nameless-here! 😉 )

I’ve also been chomping at the bit to use these table elements. This wonderful mocha-colored “St. Helena” charger from Z Gallerie has such gracefully scalloped edges! The china is “Conservatory Medallion” from the Martha Stewart Collection for Wedgwood. It was love at first sight with its meandering chocolate brown vines and scattered sky blue & mocha medallions.

Simple white hemstitched napkins work beautifully for lunch or dinner. The shimmering blue faux gemstone napkin rings, another Z Gallerie find, remind me of staring into little reflecting pools…or Paul Newman’s eyes!

International Silver’s “Royal Danish” sterling flatware makes a great match.

Chocolatey brown stemware from Old Time Pottery picks up on the deep tones of the china’s vine pattern.

Tiny individual salt & pepper shakers are placed above the dessert fork.

Silver Revere candlesticks hold chunky brown pillar candles. A single white Fuji mum lazily floats in a “St. Helena” footed bowl from Z Gallerie. A single, fabulous flower can often speak volumes! The candlesticks were, of course, removed before the luncheon.

Homemade lemon cupcakes were served with creamy strawberry ice cream for dessert. The footed dessert bowls from Old Time Pottery were the perfect color match for the china. (Click HERE and scroll down to “Mother’s Day Brunch” to see these bowls used in a different capacity.)

Other blue & brown tablescapes on this site:
“Autumn Blues“

Please join me at Between Naps on the Porch again this week for Tablescape Thursday. You’re guaranteed to get more than your fill of fabulous tablescapes from bloggers around the globe!