Tips on Tablesettings Archives - My Island Bistro Kitchen

This holiday tablesetting focuses on the blush pink color. It’s a fresh look and a departure from the usual red-green-gold we often associate with the holiday period. There is nothing wrong with those colors but, sometimes, change is good.

Pink Blush Holiday Tablesetting — Blush Pink Holiday Tablesetting

The inspiration for this tablesetting actually came from my dining room mantle design. I had these mint julep cups and thought they would look lovely with individual arrangements in them.

Pink Blush Dining Room Mantle — Blush Pink Dining Room Mantle

This year, I wanted my dining room décor to be in a fashion that didn’t scream Christmas but yet still had an understated Christmas look and feel to it. I found these lovely pale blush pink cabbage roses at Michael’s and, well, you see the result! They have the faintest dusting of glitter to give them a bit of a festive look and, voilà, blush pink became my color theme!

Pink Blush Arrangement — Blush Pink Arrangement

The addition of fairy lights makes the mantle come alive in evening and the lights, with such a fine wire string, give the illusion that they are suspended in mid air. When I am designing my dining room mantle for the holidays, I keep in mind what the design will look like in daylight and in the evening. It’s important that the design be constructed such that it works in different lighting situations.

I have never grown tired of the pale sage green wall color in my dining room – almost any accent colors, like blush and pink gold, look stunning in the room.

Fancy tablesettings do not need to cost a fortune! When I am designing tablesettings, I don’t rush out to buy all the elements. I first go through my “storehouse” to see what I have that will work. The tablesetting I am sharing today is composed mostly of items I already had. This makes a tablesetting interesting and less of a “cookie-cutter matchy-matchy” look. It’s more curated in that carefully selected items, coming from different designs and textures, are used.

Centerpiece

You’ve heard me say it in postings before – I like to work with a blank white canvas. It’s clean, simple, always elegant, always en vogue. I am using an antique white Irish linen tablecloth for my setting today.

Let’s start with the base. I was able to find good quality artificial greenery this year – greens that actually look real! I used two of these stems at an angle along the length of my oval dining table.

Pink Blush Tablesetting — Blush Pink Tablesetting

While I wanted to keep the table simple, I did add some fresh seasonal foliage, like seeded eucalyptus, to give some depth and texture. I often combine real and faux greenery to get the look I would not likely otherwise get if I used only real or all faux greens. Using some fresh natural foliage brings an element of the outdoors to the setting.

There is nothing to say the centerpiece can’t be edible! Why not make your guests salivate for dessert all through dinner! It makes a great conversation piece.

Here, I have decorated a cake which will be dessert and I have given it center table prominence by displaying it on a glass pedestal cake plate. Using a glass plate (versus a solid color) lends an airy look to the tablescape.

The cake top is constructed from Ferrero Rocher Raffaello Coconut and Almond White Chocolate Truffles to simulate snowballs, soft pink French Macarons to tie in with the blush color theme, and sugared cranberries to add a frosty look and deep color to the cake top. A sprig of seeded eucalyptus adds the natural element. Any time colored sprinkles are added to a cake, as I have done here at the cake’s base, it means it’s a party cake!

Two tall pillar candles flank the sides of the cake.

I have had the antique-look ivory pillar candle stands for years.

The candle stands have blush pink jewels hanging from their bases so they tie in well with the color scheme.

I scattered a few little white and silver votives around the centerpiece. I like to use candles of different heights in my tablescapes because their varying heights of light lend depth to the scene and, of course, candlelight always gives softness and warmth to a tablesetting. The white pillar candles have some glitter on them which adds a bit of sparking and a festive look to the setting.

Placesettings

In keeping with the silver and blush theme, I am using my glitzy silver and rhinestone chargers to frame the white dinnerware. I am a huge fan of plain white dishes because food colors just pop, with no distractions, on white. To tie the blush scheme in to the placesettings, I am using pale salmon-pink colored glass salad plates. I have positioned these on slightly larger white supper/salad plates because the white underneath grounds the pale pink color and provides a background for the glass plates. These pink glass plates were bought years ago at a thrift shop.

I have had these small pale pink antique pedestal glasses for years. I am not sure what their intended use was – if anyone knows for sure, please do let me know.

I am using them here for wine glasses in much the same way as I would use stemless wine glasses. The pink water glasses were a thrift shop find a few years ago. Mixing and matching styles and color tones make the setting more unique and interesting.

To add some pizzazz and glamour to the placesettings, I have opted to thread white dinner napkins through glitzy rhinestone napkin rings. Using napkin rings is a quick easy way to present napkins and you really can’t do them wrong!

Napkin Threaded Through Rhinestone Napkin Ring

I am using very basic, classic flatware in this setting and, of course, the flatware is placed in the order in which it will be used for the meal.

Concluding Thoughts

I hope you have enjoyed a glimpse of my blush pink tablesetting. It does not scream Christmas like reds, greens, and golds do but it is a more gentle color scheme option that works for any holiday dinner. Other than some greenery and new candles, everything else in the tablesetting (excluding, obviously, the cake – it’s fresh!) was constructed from items I already had. Proof that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to create a beautiful holiday-themed table.