Coral and Grey Luncheon

It seems that our "spring clean-up" stretched from March all the way to June this year, so our most of our entertaining had been postponed.  But today, we welcomed some friends for lunch on the deck.  The chores around the house are not finished, but we are closing in on the end of the list.  This coral and grey combination seemed like a fresh, interesting choice for the afternoon table.  

Check out the newly painted deck  railing and freshly stained decking!

This fun, graphic cotton tablecloth is a new purchase from Boxwoods in Atlanta.  I really was there to buy a gift, I promise!  But since when have I EVER left there empty-handed?  I actually did leave empty-handed, walked to my car and directly came back for it!

Last night, I took these roses for the centerpiece at a table at an outdoor concert.  For that, they were packed into a white cache-pot with the stems cut short.  Aren't they great?

This morning, I put them into these old French seed pots, since they were already cut short.  They are more vibrant than the tablecloth, but I do like the blend.

This resin urn served as the centerpiece.  It was a gift from a lovely houseguest, and I just love it. It came from a showroom called Antiques as Art, at the Atlanta gift mart at Americasmart.

It totally looks like carved granite.  This detail is amazing.

Since we were outdoors, and the meal was very simple, I used this smoke-colored plastic twig flatware.  Trust me.....it is a big step-up from the generic plastic utensils.

I love the way it picked up the color of the tablecloth.  I used these faux-zinc chargers that I posted about here with our everyday white dinner plates.   

Here's the box from the flatware.  It is made by Michael Aram, who usually designs very sophisticated silver, gold, and pewter accessories.  This is from Boxwoods, as well.

The cream linen napkin is held by a chicken wire napkin ring, which I chose mainly for the color.

The glassware is sleek, but interesting.  The stem is from Tiffany's and the grey and white marbled goblet is from Boxwoods.  I bought four of them, but I'm headed back to see if they have more.  I just love them.  I don't know who makes them, there is just a "B" on the bottom and "made in Indonesia".  Believe it our not, I didn't plan on these working with this tablecloth, even though I bought them only a few days apart.  When I was finally unloading my car, I had the bright idea to look at them together.  Perfect! 

These individual salt and pepper shakers seemed to suit the table in color and size.  I've had them forever.

I used these orange salad plates for dessert. When I bought them for a wedding shower, I never guessed how often I would use them.

There was not a lot of room, but I plated in the kitchen.

It was so good to welcome friends to our home.  They loved the table.

It was a lovely day and pretty warm, but not too, too hot yet. 

And we appreciated taking the time out to enjoy this view and tell tales.

Joining:

Tablescape Thursday 

at

Between Naps on the Porch

Share Your Style (Wed.)

at

No Minimalist Here

Show and Tell Friday

at

My Romantic Home

The Scoop (Mon.)

at

Cedar Hill Farmhouse

Inspire Me Tuesday

at

A Stroll Thru Life

Be Inspired (Tues.)

Elizabeth And Company

Table It (Sun.)

at

Rustic and Refined 

Home Sweet Home (Fri.)

at

The Charm of Home

Feathered Nest Friday

at

French Country Home

Wow Us Wednesday

at

Savvy Southern Style

Monday Funday

All Things Heart and Home

Make It Pretty Monday

at

The Dedicated House

Fridays Unfold

at

www.nancherrow.com 

Moonlight and Mason Jars (Wed.)

Celebrate It Sunday

at Celebrate and Decorate

Share It One More Time (Sat.)

designthusiasm.com

Share Your Style (Thurs.)

21 Rosemary Lane

The Creative Exchange (Thurs.)

The Happy Scraps

A Grey, Grey Day

It's grey here.  Grey, grey, grey, grey.  In fact, it snowed this morning.  Yes,....SNOW in GEORGIA in MARCH.  This is not right.  But, a very fun couple are coming for a casual dinner tonight, and they will brighten things up a lot.  So I was inspired to set a grey table and keep it simple.

A grey table has been on my mind since I received this beautiful gift in January.  We had a lovely man here as a houseguest during the Atlanta gift show.  In fact he turned out to be the perfect houseguest with impeccable manners and incredible charm.  Thank you, David.  Thank you, thank you.  You're invited back anytime.

Here's a close up of this fabulous urn.  It is a composite material, but looks like grey carved granite.  It is distributed by a wonderful showroom at Americas Mart called Art as Antiques.  You can see their stock line here.  I am so crazy about this.  Can you see the incredible detail?

I knew I would use it with this grey and cream striped linen by Windsor Smith Home.  This is just a remnant from a project I did a while ago.

Here's what I came up with.  It's a very uncomplicated table that perfectly suits the dinner I have planned. 

The whole table.  It didn't bother me that the fabric didn't entirely cover the table.  I just felt it made it look a bit more casual and modern.

The only shot of color are these hot pink roses in old French seed pots.   

They look much better from this angle.

The chargers are some I made last year.  They are just inexpensive gold plastic chargers from Old Time Pottery that I sprayed with a primer, then chalk board paint, then covered with the side of a stick of chalk.  Then you wipe most of the chalk off and it looks like zinc.  I wish I could credit the blog I saw this on, but I have forgotten who it was.  

 

Then I chose this scalloped cream plate from Z Gallerie.

Next, I used a cream, linen faggot edged napkin with this chicken wire napkin ring from Pottery Barn.

These little zinc (well, tin) stands make interesting placecards with chalk names. 

To keep things very simple and clean looking, I chose these Tiffany water goblets and Reidel stemless wine glasses.

I started out with silverplate, but changed to this cream handled flatware that made things more casual.

The water pitcher is from Pottery Barn.

I have these small, square, cream dishes from Sur La Table that I was going to use as individual salt and pepper holders, but I decided that just one for the whole table was a cleaner look.

Rolls are going to go on this sweet little pedestal that I found in Cleveland at The Flower Factory.  Sadly, that has gone out of business.  It was a great source for inexpensive hobby products and giftware.

Ahhh.  Clean and simple and not at all fussy.  Just like our guests tonight.  (Well, I guess they ARE clean, but I wouldn't exactly call them simple!!!!!)

I'm pretty happy with this.  The only thing new is that wonderful gift from David.  Everything else is stuff I already had, but I have never put them together like this.

We'll have our coffee in the living room, so I set this up on a galvanized tray with a pewter cream and sugar set that I've had since we were first married.

We haven't entertained much since Christmas, so I'm thrilled to have this evening to look forward to.  Welcome, friends!!!!

I'm joining:

Tabletop Tuesday

A Stroll Through Life

Wow Us Wednesday

Savvy Southern Style

Open House Thursday

No Minimalist Here

Tablescape Thursday

Between Naps On the Porch

Feathered Nest Friday

French Country Cottage

Seasonal Sundays

The Tablescaper

Let's Dish

Cuisine Kathleen

Fading Hydrangeas

Our hydrangeas are fading from the brilliant blue they were this summer to this smoky blue and lavender.  They were the inspiration for the table I set for dinner last night.  I put them in a galvanized container that I have sprayed with bleach to make it look more like old zinc.

I featured the lavender with cream and grey on a round tablecloth of cream burlap. 

Only a few minutes after I set the table, but before I photographed it, Mr. Pressed Pants called to ask me to join him at his business dinner.  I never turn down an offer like that, so I put on some lipstick and flew out the door, leaving the table as it sat.  I was not two miles from home, when the heavens opened and when I got home, I had a soaked table with an inch of rain in the glasses.

I pulled things inside to dry off and reset the table this morning as soon as it was light outside.  Doesn't the early light make things look interesting?

Here's the simple placesetting.

I did a quick stack of charger, dinner plate and salad plate.

I made these for several people for Christmas this year.  They are just inexpensive plastic chargers primed with spray paint, sprayed with grey paint, then rubbed with chalk and "erased".  Directions were several places in blogland.  Don't they look like lead?  This one is still a bit wet!

The white scalloped dinner plates are from Z Gallerie.

These beautiful old salad plates are Bavarian.

The flatware is from Neiman Marcus many years ago.

The crisp, lavender dinner napkin is from a restaurant overstock website.

Pottery Barn sold these chicken wire napkin rings this spring.  I couldn't resist!!!

This soft lavender glassware is so pretty.  I wish I knew how to photograph glassware well.  The stem has beautiful details on it like Juliska, but it was very inexpensive and I think I found them at T. J. Maxx years ago.

Then I chose these French seed pots to go with them as wine cups.

My mother gave me these individual pewter salt and pepper shaker many, many years ago for Christmas.

And I've had this pewter cruet set for many years.  It was a wedding gift.

This cute guy is a rather recent purchase.  I couldn't decide on using him, or the individual pewter salt and peppers.  I ended up photographing the table with both sitting on it!  Oh, well.  Dinner could have been well seasoned!

The wine coaster is actually a candle holder, but I love the look of it as a wine holder.

As you can see, we might not have had dinner at home last night, but we did manage to drink the wine.

Not an intricate tablescape, but restful.

The pots behind the table are filling in nicely.  Well, at least two of the three are!

So guess what?  This became a rather fancy breakfast table for Cheerios and fruit!  No, we didn't finish the wine with breakfast, but it was a nice way to start the day.

We should do this more often.

I'll be posting this with Between Naps On the Porch for Tablescape Thursday.

http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/