Ann Moore Spencer

If you are look­ing for clever ways to em­bell­ish your home for the East­er hol­i­day, con­sid­er de­sign­ing a ta­blescape. Ta­blescapes are a fun way to dec­o­rate, while show­cas­ing your cre­ativ­i­ty. Put sim­ply, a ta­blescape is a dec­o­ra­tive dis­play. Many re­fer to ta­blescapes as cen­tre­pieces, and though a ta­blescape cer­tain­ly can be used to adorn the cen­tre of your din­ing ta­ble, it can al­so be cre­at­ed to show­case a dis­play of some sort. Many peo­ple choose to cre­ate ta­blescapes on their cof­fee ta­bles, side ta­bles, buf­fets, or oth­er such fur­ni­ture. Ta­blescapes can be used in every­day d&ea­cute;cor; how­ev­er, they can al­so be cre­at­ed specif­i­cal­ly for a hol­i­day such as East­er. Many peo­ple like to cre­ate ta­blescapes when host­ing an East­er feast. Ta­blescapes such as these would like­ly in­clude a cen­tre­piece, but would in­cor­po­rate every as­pect of the ta­ble-in­clud­ing din­ing ware-in­to the de­sign.

There are cer­tain things to con­sid­er when build­ing your ta­blescape. First, de­cide which items to in­cor­po­rate in­to your de­sign. You will want to choose like items that com­ple­ment and en­hance one an­oth­er. This doesn't mean that all items should be the same; just that they work har­mo­nious­ly with one an­oth­er. For ex­am­ple, if you are host­ing East­er brunch at your home and choose to cre­ate an egg-themed ta­blescape, con­sid­er in­cor­po­rat­ing dec­o­ra­tive eggs, birds, nests, bird­hous­es or green­ery in­to your de­sign. If you se­lect a re­li­gious theme, re­li­gious items such as cross­es, framed vers­es, run­ners with em­broi­dered re­li­gious mo­tifs with white linen and white lilies will look stun­ning. When build­ing your ta­blescape, it is im­por­tant to con­sid­er the height and size of the items you wish to in­clude. For an East­er ta­blescape, con­sid­er us­ing a bright flo­ral arrange­ment or branch­es adorned with blos­soms in a tall vase as your cen­tre­piece. Once you have the cen­tre­piece of your de­sign, you can add oth­er items of vary­ing height to it. Re­gard­less of the type of East­er ta­blescape you wish to de­sign, there are a few things you can do to help the mak­ing of your ta­blescape go more smooth­ly. Try to in­cor­po­rate things you al­ready have around your home in­to your ta­blescape de­sign. Al­so, in­clude items from your yard and gar­den; Moth­er Na­ture of­ten show­cas­es the most beau­ti­ful of cen­tre­pieces. Can­dy and East­er grass are al­ways pop­u­lar items to in­clude in a cen­tre­piece de­sign. Al­so, you can en­hance your ta­blescape with pic­ture frames, small trin­kets, and glass dish­es. Colour­ful table­cloths and place­mats are al­so very help­ful in pulling your de­sign to­geth­er.

For a more whim­si­cal and light-heart­ed ta­blescape, con­sid­er plac­ing an East­er bun­ny at the cen­tre and in­clud­ing ac­cents such as East­er can­dy, pas­tel-coloured East­er eggs, and East­er grass. This sort of ta­blescape is more tra­di­tion­al and fun for all ages-es­pe­cial­ly if chil­dren will be at­tend­ing your feast. A more for­mal ta­blescape could in­clude fine chi­na, re­al sil­ver, and elab­o­rate flo­ral de­signs. Many peo­ple choose to ac­cent their ta­blescapes with pinks or blues, as they like­ly have chi­na in these colours. A more mod­ern trend is to use de­lec­table items in your ta­blescape de­sign. There are many cre­ative cen­tre­pieces made en­tire­ly of sweet treats. Sug­ar cook­ies, cup­cakes, and cake­pops can all be used to cre­ate a clever, whim­si­cal, and de­li­cious cen­tre­piece for your guests to en­joy. Many peo­ple like to host out­door feasts. Typ­i­cal­ly, ta­blescapes for these oc­ca­sions would be more ca­su­al and com­fort­able and en­hance the out­door set­ting. For this type of ta­blescape, you may want to in­clude bright coloured flow­ers and pro­vide cush­ioned seat­ing for your guests to sit on.