Setting The Fall Table
by Sue Zelickson, Tastemaker in Residence
Setting the table for Fall entertaining can be beautiful, simple, and economical. You'll find free and creative finds right out your back door and your desk or kitchen drawer just might prove to be a treasure trove full of ideas.
Why not use the colorful leaves and acorns that fall off the trees? Cut a few of the bare branches to add height to any centerpiece. They can be left natural or sprayed in colors to match your decor, dishes, napkins, or table cloth. (If you spray them gold or silver they can be saved for the December holidays as well).
I love to fill jars and vases with little apples, pumpkins, and acorns. It’s fun to scatter or line them up in long thin trays across the middle of the table. Creating Fall placemats can be easy. Gather leaves, then staple or glue them onto your favorite shape (round, square or oblong) cardboard or construction paper. Kid or grandkid friendly!
This Fall the designers at Bachman's Idea House revealed creative ways to decorate pumpkins without carving them. Simply use your imagination. Use hat or corsage pins with the pearl tips lined up and down the creases of the pumpkins; that’s an elegant twist. They also used thumb tacks and upholstery tacks for the same effect. Patterned sticky tapes have popped up in many craft stores and markets. Creative placement on the whole pumpkin adds another dimension and it’s super easy.
My most favorite reuse of a product, that is almost extinct, is using the little round circles we put on our three-ring binder notebooks to keep the pages from ripping. Now called Reinforcement Labels; some of you have a pile in your desk drawer from years ago and now a way to use them! They provide a fabulous polka dot effect on any pumpkin. Or spray your pumpkin black, purple or any other dark color then stick the little white rounds randomly around or even make a face. You’re recycling and it is another fun, festive, frugal, and easy way to decorate with spirit for your Fall tables.