Halloween is over, so it’s officially holiday season! Halloween probably falls into that category too, but Thanksgiving and Christmas are another level in my opinion, and I can’t wait!
Truth be told, I’m not the one hosting Thanksgiving this year. So when I decided I still wanted to have a little fun with a Thanksgiving tablescape, I obviously didn’t want to spend a lot of money. When I saw this candle stick holder centerpiece, I knew I wanted to build everything else around it. Liz Marie Galvan shared this about a week ago on her blog (link here), and I fell in love. Over the weekend, we went out to find the wood for it, and we made our first mistake by not searching hard enough haha… The wood we found didn’t have nearly the amount of character that LMG had in her post, so we set out to find a paint or stain that could create it.
I first tried to use chalk paint and antique wax to achieve an aged look with character, but it covered up too much of the wood grain. We moved on with stain, and we quickly learned that the colors on the cans of stain don’t match reality. After a few different attempts, I decided to just go with the least offensive stain and hope that liming wax would make it better. What started out as an attempt to create a natural, rustic centerpiece, actually ended with achieving a white-washed grey one haha…. It was okay because it tied into the grey in the tablecloth… totally on purpose (cough cough).
For the candles, there is a mixture between white and ivory and tall and short. LMG goes into much greater detail in her blog post with measurements and the drill bit to use and everything. It was beyond detailed and helpful!
The rest of the tablescape pretty much used things I already had around the house. The “chargers” and ribbon were new. I picked up the thick, natural pieces of scrapbook paper from a local craft store to go underneath the plates. It obviously wasn’t as great as an actual charger would be, but it served the purpose of adding another layer that I loved. The napkins were from Homegoods that tied in nicely with the grey in the tablecloth.
The ribbon was another find on Instagram (linked here) and is absolutely beautiful. I’m totally going to get more of it, potentially for using around the holidays, but you could really use it anytime of year. I was hoping to put eucalyptus down the center of the tablescape, around the candle holder, but that would have blocked the wood. I found these deep toned stems at Trader Joe’s and lined them up on either side. I probably could have done without, but I wanted to incorporate a little bit of traditional Thanksgiving color.
Now I’m just rambling, but the moral of the story? Find the right piece of wood, and the rest will fall into place.
