Outdoor Dining

Fresh air, blue sky, birds singing, and a great meal served in a beautiful fashion. I’m a happy girl.

This tablescape brings nature to the table. I purchased the twig and moss-covered birdhouse from The Garden Gnome Bonsai for under $20.00. They have such cute things! I used it in place of a more traditional centerpiece. Then, instead of flanking it with flowers or allowing it to get lonely, I placed some pots of appropriately-colored caladiums on either side. I love the combination of pinks and lime green. The table is now ready for food and people to eat it (the food, I mean, not the table).

Notice the layering. Lime green tropical charger plates under the pink dishes. Pink matelasse tablecloth, with a lime green and white lattice table runner placed on top. I like it!

I am constantly tweak, tweak, tweaking when I set a table. This was the original plan (shown above). I just didn’t like it. The pink and white polka dot dessert plates and salad bowls were way too pale. I asked Becky what she thought was wrong and she pointed to the pink tablecloth, but that was the base of everything. She was right — there was too much of an expanse of pink tablecloth for serving four people. I could have removed a couple of leaves from the table, or I could have used this for a bigger dinner — with 6 or 8 — and it would have looked fine, but there was too much tablecloth showing for this setting for 4. The pink centerpiece also was not what I needed. Again, it presented a disconnect with the hot pink and it just wasn’t workin’ for me. I ameliorated the problem of the too much pink tablecloth by using a runner, got rid of the pale pink stuff, and ended up with a much prettier table. As you can see from the pictures earlier in the page with the birdhouse and table runner, persistence pays off and I finally got it right!