A time-honored holiday tradition in my community is the Christmas on Carter Creek Tablescape Designs every November. Designers, boutique owners, and tablescape enthusiasts come together to create beautiful designs to showcase to friends, family, and our community. It’s not only a philanthropic way to start off the year, but also a great excuse to start decorating early for the holidays.
This is my second year to participate in Christmas on Carter Creek and as a newcomer, I enjoy seeing everyone’s designs and finding inspiration in their creations!
My Tablescape Inspiration and Design Elements
Every tablescape design starts with a sprinkle of inspiration. Maybe it’s an image from a magazine or something that I found while shopping at a local antique store. Inspiration can be found in many mediums that help you begin your design journey. This year’s tablescape design was inspired by family and the snow-covered mountains. As I developed the idea more elements came to me as I found the perfect place settings with scenes of families playing in the snow on sleighs, tubes and skiing down mountains.
The centerpiece of the tablescape was quite the mystery to me from a visual standpoint and overall design. This was by far the most challenging part of the design to nail down. I knew I wanted the center to be tall and a showstopper. I knew it needed to resemble a Christmas tree shape but also incorporate the overall theme of family and snow-covered mountains. I wanted depth and hidden elements that sparked joy for everyone who stopped to view the table. Each element needed to build on itself to create an entirely immersive experience. Using plant risers and empty pots shaped like hollow tree trunks, I began to experiment with layering the centerpiece. I stacked the plant risers and turned the pots upside down creating ledges for my tiny Christmas trees wrapped in burlap to rest. Filling in around each tree were scented pinecones, faux candles wrapped in birch wood, and a light dusting of artificial snowflakes.
The showstopper element for my centerpiece was a unique and last minute find as I walked out the door of a local antique store. After lapping the store and looking in every little hidden spot, alas I found exactly what I was looking… a sled. The sled had the perfect amount of rust and whimsy to pull together my overall design of family in the snow. But now the question was, how do I anchor the sled? Large, oversized centerpieces for tablescape designs for displays such as this one require safety measures to ensure that anyone viewing the display will stay safe and no one will get hurt. We used a wooden crate, on its side, securing it in place with sandbags. Zip ties helped to secure the sled onto the wooden crate and anchor it to the center of the table. Using the pines and other decor, I was able to hide any elements that I didn’t want guests to see such as the crate and zip ties.
Design Details
Every tablescape design needs to have personal touches to them. I find that these details need to be at eye level when seated at the table. This year I experimented with clay and hand crafting place cards that contained inspirational seasonal words garnished with citrus, rosemary and rustic twine. This design detail and craft was easy and took an hour from start to finish to complete.
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