When you sit down to eat, how often do you include table centerpieces? Not often? Well, these decorations can be simple, inexpensive and available on a moment's notice! Using table centerpieces for every day use, you can brighten your table considerably, making even a casual family supper a little bit special. How can you have a choice of ready table centerpieces? Here are a few ideas to get you started.
When you think of centerpieces for the table, you may think of a large vase with freshly-cut flowers. With the price of flowers, unless you've got your own cutting garden, this just isn't practical. Don't let that deter you. Table centerpieces are meant to serve as a unifying focal point for the entire table setting, and need not be limited to a single vase.
Along with large vases, you can use baskets, decorative boxes or tins, tiny vases, luminaria, votive candles and candlesticks to create your theme.
When creating your table centerpieces, consider the size of your gathering. For a dinner for two, a taller vase of roses set towards the end of the table is quite romantic.
If you've got a large gathering, you won't want a tall vase of flowers, beautiful as it may be, to interfere with your guests' conversation. It can be awkward to crane your neck around that vase to speak with someone across the table.
It makes better sense, with a large group, to have several small votive style candles or luminaria down the length of the table, with small vases or glasses of small dried flowers, each tied with a colored ribbon bow. A table runner underneath, running the length of the table attractively unifies and completes the centerpiece.
Another large group idea for a table centerpiece uses a couple of large ornate candlesticks with a thin profile placed towards the ends of the table. Shallow baskets filled with silk flowers are set spaced towards the center of the table. This is a good way to have a more formal look without interfering with conversations.
Another glitzy component of table centerpieces are the strings of beads, garlands and “icicles” such as are found as tree decorations at Christmas time. These can be woven amongst your candles and flowers for a special look. Alternatively, small figurines can be worked into these centerpieces. Try to keep the numbers of different elements to just a few. This makes a bigger visual statement than many mismatched items. You want to avoid a cluttered look.
A long, shallow basket filled with brightly colored fall gourds and “Indian” corn makes a simple yet beautiful table centerpiece. Fresh fruit in a couple of baskets and within reach of all your guests is both attractive and edible.
So you can see there's a world of ideas for table centerpieces. Some people set aside space in a cupboard or sewing room to store all their “props” to choose on a moment's notice, ready to put some pizazz on your table.