Over the Summer Fabby at Fabby's Living celebrated her third anniversary blogging you can see her beautiful Fourth of July Patriotic Tablescape anniversary post
here. Fabby was celebrating by giving away a set of lovely "straw shawl" hand made place mats. From the moment I saw them I knew I would love to have them. When I found out I had won them I was delighted! I knew exactly how I would use them too. I had been looking for a place mat to use with my Royal China Cavalier Ironstone china. The pattern name is Sussex and it is a lovely vintage pattern with a brown floral on a creamy background. This china needed a lacy delicate place mat that would show off the pattern. I adore the way this table setting came out.
I knew from the beginning that I wanted a warm chocolate brown tablecloth as the canvas to build this tablescape on. I searched for two months to no avail to find my perfect tablecloth. I gave up and bought a piece of brown material with a cream floral print but was not happy with it. So I decided to get out and look again yesterday morning. I started at the HomeGoods Store at nine thirty in the morning - nothing.... So then I went to Tuesday Morning, again nothing.... so I started at the thrift stores again, first the Goodwill.... nothing, then the Volunteers of America.... nothing, and finally I drove down to the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army was crowded with bumper to bumper shoppers. I literally could not get through the store. Instead of going down to the domestics department as I usually do, I detoured through the furniture department and apologized to many people for threading around them to get to the domestics department by going along the outside wall. As I passed the infants bedding I spotted a piece of material hanging between the crib sheets. It was a four yard by 60 inches wide piece of decorator fabric with a slight raised pattern in the weave. And most important of all, it was a beautiful true chocolate brown. If I had gone to the domestic department as I usually do I would never have seen this fabric wedged between the crib sheets in infants bedding. My detour had taken me right to it.
The place mat.
Except for the pears I kept the the table to just brown and white for this first fall table. I love the warmth of the brown, it just looks so homey. I used the rooster tureen as my centerpiece and small brown birds as accents around the table. The napkin is a white sateen with a brown and white calico napkin folded underneath.
The pears are set in a bed of raffia in the berry bowls. The raffia complemented the natural fiber in the place mats.
Everything used on this table was thrifted except for the flatware and the pears. The flatware came from a Tuesday Morning sidewalk sale and the pears were bought at Marc's (my favorite closeout store).
Thrift on ladies, thrift on - you never know what you are going to find.
I will be sharing at:
