To celebrate the winter solstice I created the Narnia inspired, neutral holiday table of my DREAMS. All that’s missing is rose scented turkish delights! My friend & floral designer, Kaitlin of Petaline, brought my natural Christmas decor dreams to life, and Matt & I set the table using everyday ware and little bit of bling. And because we wanted the tablescape to be something you could do at home, Kaitlin designed a simple centerpiece, wreaths, and mini bouquet place settings. The result is a beautiful, minimalist Christmas table setting & neutral winter decor that’s elegant & timeless yet still unique & modern. Read on for inspiration, sources, and to learn how to make a centerpiece of your own!
The Natural Christmas Centerpiece
So many tables you see on Pinterest are gorgeous yet totally unattainable. They would require a team of people and a huge budget! That’s why I wanted to create a neutral holiday table, & natural wreaths that are attainable. As much as I love hanging floral installations and over-the-top set design, most of us do NOT have the time or resources to do that at home. At least not without driving ourselves crazy!
Why Dried Flowers?
I decided to let dried florals be the anchor of my neutral holiday table. I love the symbolism of incorporating spring & summer blooms frozen in time as a reminder of the cycle of the year. They’re a reminder of new birth in spring, the abundance of summer, the fiery twilight of fall, and the dead of winter. And how new life springs eternal.
The other thing I love about using dried flowers & foliage is that they last all winter! I can have a beautiful dried floral arrangement in my home for weeks. So, you get a lot more mileage for your time & money. The same goes for the dried wreaths and gift toppers. Stored properly they’ll be beautiful again next year which makes them time and money saving ideas as well!
How to Make an Asymmetrical Dried Floral Centerpiece
Kaitlin used stems like bleached fern, lunaria, bunny tail grass, pampas grass, and more in a brass bowl to create a wild centerpiece. I’m in LOVE with it as the heart of our wintery, neutral holiday table. I personally source dried flowers from a wholesale supplier, but most local flower shops can order them for you if they don’t have them in stock! Even better, you could collect & dry flowers throughout the year to use come the holidays. If you love Kaitlin’s work you can follow her on Instagram, and you can contact her for booking your event or wedding in 2019!
Supplies:
- A low, wide vessel like a brass bowl
- Floral Clay
- Flower Foam or a Flower Frog
- An assortment of neutral, bleached, or spray painted dried flowers, foliage, grasses, and pods
Tip From Kaitlin:
If you don’t have time to get your local florist to order dried and bleached flora for you, grab a can of white spray paint (or maybe gold!) and paint bought or foraged flora. Lots of designers do this!
How To:
- To create a shape like she has here pick a low, wide vessel like a bowl.
- Secure either floral foam or a flower frog (a spiky little thing that holds flowers in place!) and secure it to the base with floral clay.
- Decide on the outline or general shape you want your piece to have, and then pick the tallest pieces first.
- Place them to out line the shape, and work inwards to fill it out using progressively shorter pieces!
- Have fun with it…it’s all about the magic of the process and about a wabi-sabi look instead of perfection.
- Once you’re done you can keep it all winter!
The Minimalist Christmas Tablescape & Decor
Most of us can’t afford to buy a whole new set of plates for Christmas. So, I wanted a simple way to dress up my white everyday plates for the holidays that suited a neutral holiday table. After looking online, I fell in love with these moon-like chargers from West Elm. And frankly in the world of chargers they’re pretty affordable. I like that they’re neutral enough to use for all sorts of celebrations no matter the season. If you’re doing a bigger party, you could look into charger rentals for a cost effective way to make your everyday goods extra!
I scored the gorgeous, thin wine glasses from Crate & Barrel for a song. They’re $12.95 apiece, and similar looking ones from Riedel cost almost $100 each! My white linen table cloth is from Celina Mancurti on Etsy and the blush linen napkins are also by Celina but I found them on Food52. The flatware is the clean lined Arezzo—gorgeous in gold for the holidays but also dishwasher safe and great for everyday use! You can also finds loads of different hand dyed silk ribbons on Etsy, which is what we’ve tied our bouquets with, and my vintage brass candle holders are also an Etsy find!
Natural & Handmade Holiday Decor
We keep it pretty simple, and I’ve collected most of our handmade ornaments like the laser cut snowflakes, ceramic bells, and my favorite ceramic fox over the years from Food52. Our new brass ornaments can be found at McGee & Co, and the Swedish wooden tree topper can be found at June Home Supply.
The wreaths are made out of grapevine wreath frames that we cut and pull apart to make them more wispy or willow branches bent and secured with floral wire. This year we went with dried and bleached flora, but in years past we’ve done beautiful green versions as well. You can read our tutorial for DIY Asymmetrical Wreaths to get more wreath inspiration & know-how!
Looking for more?
Like what you see? Subscribe at the bottom of the post to get inspiration & recipes to elevate the everyday delivered straight to your inbox! We’ll be sharing even more over the next week in celebration of the holidays including a Christmas cracker DIY (the poppers you pull apart with little gifts inside at dinner!) and our sustainable holiday gift wrapping inspiration! And of course recipes…I’m starting to feel the need for a turkish delight recipe!
Some favorites from years past have been my balsam fir syrup (it makes a wonderful gift!), soft & fluffy egg nog cinnamon rolls (a Christmas Eve tradition!), and my sage & prosecco cocktails!
Disclaimer: This post contains some affiliate links! That means if you purchase via the link I get a VERY small commission from the seller to keep this blog up and running! And I NEVER recommend anything I don’t or wouldn’t personally use!
Absolutely gorgeous!
Magical
Very, very pretty. The wispy Narnia winter wonderland theme is lovely. My only issue would be as a diner at this gathering, how do I see my companions across the table and where to put the food? I would go with the wreath and maybe a few mini version of this arrangement.
That is absolutely beautiful, you have done a wonderful job.
what a special party. Do you have a source for the beautiful wavy plates?
They are by Akiko Graham but I can’t find them anywhere online anymore!
So beautiful! My Grandma always used dried and found objects for decorating so I have a penchant for them and love to see new and modern interpretations.
Beautiful table setting and with that long linen table cloth! Just as I like it.
Love this so much. Just beautiful. I’m in love with your white plates. Can you share where those are from 🙂 Happy holidays!
This is so dreamy. Absolutely love it!
You are magician! Gorgeous, elegant, authentic, and unequivocally you.
Magical Beth ! The subtle use of colours and that wreath!! Wow!!
Oh Beth… this is beautiful. I love your work, and I understand that it is WORK. It takes a lot of time to style and photograph and write posts like these, and I am grateful for the beauty. I consume and enjoy the free things you create, and like I said, I am appreciative. Your work is great fodder for daydreaming. But please… stop labeling this shit as “attainable” and “simple” and “something you can do at home.” I gather your point is, you don’t need a swan shaped ice sculpture on your table… instead just put out chargers and plates and flatware and glasses and a linen tablecloth and napkins and silk ribbons and flowers and candles. Ummm… that sounds like a fully set table. Like a really nice, fully set, out of the ordinary, special occasion table. And yours is stunning because it has a lot of really expensive and tasteful things from nice stores on it. What about a $18 apiece napkins and $40 apiece gold chargers is so natural and easy and attainable and simple? I mean, there’s almost $500 worth of flatware alone on this table. You’re like… just come on guys, I’m not making a crazy pinterest table here with chocolate fountains and diamond crusted salt and pepper shakers! I didn’t spend millions of dollars… I just spent HUNDREDS of dollars on beautiful things from nice stores, and hired a professional florist to make a skillfully assembled asymmetrical arrangement of super expensive bleached ferns and grasses. Seriously, do you know how expensive and hard to get lunaria is? (I’m a florist) Listen… your message is just muddled. So, you used a PBR glass as a cake stand six years ago, and now you have, like $2000 worth of nice things on your table, because you’ve found success as an entrepreneur. So my take is, look, you can start with nothing, and build a successful career that pays you well enough to own really nice things. That’s a great story! So the career is what’s “attainable”… with moxy and hard work and just starting and failing and trying. I get it… I love when you are preaching THAT message. Keep that message clean… don’t muddle it with vague notions that your lavishly appointed holiday table is somehow a simple thing that’s easy for all of us to do at home right now. Keep it aspirational. Just my two cents. Truly wish you all the best!
I totally hear you! You are completely right. While most of this was collected over the past 7 years, this holiday dinner party shoot cost about $450 total with 6 chargers ($240), 6 wine glasses ($78)), and flowers ($150ish) being the only out of pocket expense. And again, since they’re dried flowers, we’ll be keeping them to use again and again. I’m VERY big into quality over quantity and buying beautiful things that will last. And to be fair the florist is our friend and we have done a fun holiday project together (to teach people how to DIY it!) for years. Your take away is the takeaway I really want. Even if you can’t do this now, you can do YOUR version with what you have. Maybe for the next one I’ll do a foraged and thrifted version with a bedsheet tablecloth…get back to my roots! : ) I’ll try to be more clear in the message that YES nice things took work and TIME. And that you don’t HAVE to have money to create something beautiful because I’ve done it both ways!
Stunning, clean lines and calming colors. BUT, personally I dislike center “STUFF” a candle stick here and there period. My opinion .Happy Holidays, dear.
For all the comments that are really taking down this “aspirational” style that Beth is trying to show us I’d like to say I’m “inspired”. Aspiration takes time, inspiring others may take a little bit of a stretch, so I appreciate the thought and beauty that was brought into this. I’ve looked EVERYWHERE for that white fern…seriously. And yes, I’d like to have something like that for my Christmas table, but I’ll be inspired to try my version that is adaptable to my budget. So thank you Beth for the inspiration that you bring!
Hey Sarah, Thanks for the sweet comment! That’s my whole goal…to inspire! But I hear their point: Ain’t cheap! Especially when we’re talking a table collected over 7 years! Re the fern: Kaitlin’s tip about spray painting fern totally works! And while it isn’t white, I found this pretty stuff at terrain that I think would be a good candidate for spray paint: https://rstyle.me/n/ddpzkyyi4n
Beth, your ability to respond with ears that hear, seemingly without defense makes me smile. Looks like some beautiful personal work….. and I’m in admiration. I follow more for your words and open heart and brush up against the beauty in the process.