DIY Christmas Tablescape

6 Dec

We are so excited to share our DIY Christmas Tablescape with you this year! We had a blast styling it for our annual Christmas Feast with our friends a few weeks back, and learned quite a few tricks along the way which we are really excited to share with you. Now, this isn't an ordinary tablescape. It features a couple of fun and easy DIY projects, as well as a gifting idea for your family and friends to take home with them, because Christmas after all, is about giving. Let's get started!

2Smor-Kitchen-Christmas-Feast-Tablescape-Table-Setting-_20-of-27.jpeg

3Smor-Kitchen-Christmas-Feast-Tablescape-Table-Setting-_23-of-27.jpeg

Step 1: Choose a colour palette

For us, Christmas is about embracing the festive season and paying homage to the beautiful colours it brings. We love greens, neutrals, rustic reds and earthy tones during Christmas. However the abundance of colours, shades and sparkles can get a little overwhelming, so we suggest you choose one foundation colour and two complimentary colours. We drew inspiration from our native garden and our DIY Holiday Native Leaf Garland, and chose green as our foundation colour, and white and beige for our complimentary colours.

Step 2: Choose a tablecloth

We love using linen and cotton table cloths and bed sheets to cover our table. It transforms the whole tablescape experience and acts as an element a surprise for guests who are used to dining at our place on the regular. There are a lot of options and we found it best to consider our colour palette first, and use this to choose a dark tablecloth or a light tablecloth We opted for a light beige linen and cotton blend tablecloth. Once thing we want to mention is that you can dress your table with a cloth that covers just the top of the table (like in our tablescape), or a cloth that also hides the legs of your table. The choice is yours and both look really lovely.

Step 3: Choose your place settings

This is where the fun begins! We use the light-dark or dark-light method starting with the placemats. If you have a dark placemat, choose light plates/bowls. And vice versa. We came across these dark brown rattan-look (plastic) placemats a while ago and knew these would be the perfect foundation for our place settings. These are perfect for indoor and outdoor use as you simple wash them with water to clean them. From here, we chose a lighter plate/bowl option. Also, don't feel pressured to have all the same plates and bowls. Feel free to mix and match whatever you have at home.

When it comes to cutlery, we love gold for festive occasions like Christmas and birthdays (but anything will do - really). You could even mix and match silver cutlery (we have lots of second hand cutlery that we mix and use together. Napkins are a great way to add some texture. We chose a striped (white and beige) linen napkin to compliment the setting. For glassware, we actually went plastic this year. We've got a few kids around now, so knew this would be the safe option. We chose a simple coupe for wine and champagne, and fluted cups to add even more texture.

Step 4: Style your centrepiece

This is where we love to mix and match, using a variety of vessels, candles and native leaves we collected from our garden. Look through your cupboards at home to see what you can use. Try to source as much greenery and florals from our own garden or your neighbours (remember to ask first). You'll save lots of money if you collect your greenery and flowers yourself! In our humble opinion, more is more when it comes to a festive centrepiece. Just remember, you need to move it all away to make room for the food!

Step 5: DIY what you can

This year we made our DIY Fabric Bonbons for each of our guests using napkins we sourced from our local Vinnies and rope we had in our craft cupboard. We also used gold napkin rings as the base for the candles on the table. As we mentioned earlier, we made our own DIY Holiday Native Leaf Garland. We also gave our friends a little gift this year - a mini glass jar of our famous Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce tied with more rope we had in our craft cupboard. If you don't want to make caramel sauce, you could make festive gingerbread men!