Casual Organic Modern Fall Table
Lovely orange lilies, light pink David Austin Roses and fall colored dahlias and chrysanthemums fill this casual centerpiece. The rest of this table design is filled with neutral colors and earth tone serving pieces.
There are a few things that will be different this year when entertaining throughout the holidays. With social distancing on most of our minds, hosting parties will be limited to smaller intimate gatherings. There is also a huge surge in using organically crafted products from your surrounding areas allowing for more earth tones to be present in the home.
Our holidays will be no different. I generally have a huge house full of guests when it comes to celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas but this year we will only dine with my immediate family. Honestly, that poses a huge challenge for me. I love the hustle and bustle of the holidays! Instead of chaffing dishes and large open house buffet’s, I will set a table for four and concentrating my efforts instead on cooking a complex gourmet meal that I generally will not attempt with a full house.
My daughter will be visiting through the holidays and for us that is special. She has always loved to cook, and it would be fun to cook together as we did when she was just a young girl. I’m thinking my meal will consist of an Authentic French Onion Soup by Epicurious, Classic French Duck A L ’Orange,
a small turkey with all the fixings, homemade rolls, and a dessert.
When setting my holiday table, I wanted to put together a design that would be modern with warmth to it. I absolutely love the look and feel of a table that has beautifully crafted organic pieces that brings the outdoors into my house and mix them with lovely modern and vintage decor.
More and more these days, I find myself wanting to capture the feel of the outdoors and bring it into my home. I love organically crafted pieces that come from the surrounding areas here in New England where I live. Fresh earth tone linens, hand turned wooden bowls and lovely whimsical vases paired with my love for beautiful crystal and French decor creates a warm and inviting tablescape.
The pieces I am using come from professional artisans that I know personally and professionally who take pride in thier craftmanship. I love that these items were made from their own hands and are organically crafted from local resources. In today’s environment, it means more to me than ever to have a calm and restful home atmosphere.
First, what is Organic Modern Design Aesthetics?
Organic Modern Design is being kicked around a lot these days and I wanted to put some definition around it for those who are confused about the term. This trend refers to an overarching design style — a balanced mix of modern lines and often crisp white surfaces contrasted with natural forms and materials, and neutral colors. The design is seen as biophilic in nature and has an overall comforting look and feel to it.
For this year, instead of dining super formal for the upcoming holidays as I most often do, I wanted to create a more soothing and comfortable dining experience. It will be just the four of us and with the climate as it is these days, I thought comfort is what is needed most.
I want to use my dining room for my meals through the holidays. Since my table holds 8 people comfortably, I will need to get creative with my design to use up all the space. I have some tricks that I often use and will share them with you.
The other thing that my family will do this years is have a ZOOM call with my extended family who can’t be with us. Right before we have dinner, we will sit at our table and share a glass of wine while on our call. It is our way of connecting with those we love. We can still laugh and share stories but it will be remote.
““Let us celebrate the occasion with wine and sweet words.”
”
On to my table design
I have created my modern organic table design using white crisp linens, natural forms and materials, and neutral colors.
What I love about these linen napkins is that they have an open weave with a special yarn detail and herringbone stripe. The texture of the fabric is beautiful. Although they appear to be super dainty they are not. They are a durable sustainable linen fabric that I have used over and over again. The neutral hues of the napkins add to my overall organic feel.
These lovely wooden salad bowls are a black walnut with rich grains thourghout each piece. The natural wood material and earthy tones anchors the placesettings making each a focal point within themselves. You have lovely contrasting textures and colors in each layer of your place setting starting first with the charger, then the plate, the napkin and then finally the wooden salad bowl.
Fruit is always a great way of adding color to a table design. Here I used a tiny pear that I found at our local organic farmers’ market. It adds just a touch of color to my place settings without overwhelming it. The beautiful green hues in the pear can also be found in my centerpieces. This allowed for a more overall cohesive look and feel to my table.
Click on the picture to find the recipe
This live edge serve bowl is a perfect addition to my tablescape and will hold my hot homemade biscuits wonderfully. The linen is the same fabric as my other napkins shown elsewhere with just a few differences. This one has a black yarn detail in several areas of the napkin. I used this napkin design because I wanted to bring to the forefront some of the different colors in my bowl. Walnut has so many beautiful grains in it and one color that I love to accent is the black. Because these bowls are handmade, they are not perfect nor replicated like you would see in a manufactured piece. They are created out of upcycled wood from the forests in Vermont. They have smooth rounded free formed edges that you often will see in biophilic and current modern design.
My tablecloth is a simple off-white linen that is slightly wrinkled. In formal dining, I will use very crisp well ironed linens, but here it is different. The casual natural occurring wrinkles add to the organic feel to the table. A few wrinkles are fine. Too many wrinkles will take away from the design because your eye will just settle on the tablecloth and it can appear messier than anything.
I wrote a blog all about linens and how to care for them if you would like to learn more. Click on this link to read Oh Those DAUNTING Linens.
Color and presentation are still especially important when setting a table. With an organic modern styled table, florals can really make a difference in the attraction of your design. I wanted a few subtle pops of fall colors that weren’t overwhelming but still have some resemblance of an Autumn day.
I chose a charming pattern from Juliska in the crystal, chargers, plates and pitcher. They are a more contemporary style that I find to be both modern and still have a French feel to them. They add a softness to my table which I always look for.
“flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine to the mind.”
HINT: When I am setting a table that is larger than I need I will often take my larger centerpiece and place it at the other end of the table where we aren’t dining. I like to bring my place setting together at one side of the table using the other for food and florals. I purposefully do this because I want to fill that area of the table that I will not be using and at the same time create a more intimate dining experience in the area where we will be eating. It’s a great way to allow for you to hold your serving dishes. I often will have a small chaffing dish on the opposite side of the table to take up space.
In this design, I will put my live edge wooden serve bowl with rolls in the empty area of the table along with some votives, a wine decanter, and other food items that I want to add to the table. The one thing that I do insist on is having a lovely floral arrangement on the opposite side of the table where we will not be dining. It just adds to the interest of the table, takes up space and creates a beautiful view.
When we are done with dinner, I will remove the dinner items or chaffing dishes and then bring the desserts with tea and coffee to the table. Once that is done, everyone can sit and enjoy the rest of the meal.
Just because we are social distancing this year doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy a lovely dinner with family. It can be as formal or casual as you like. What is most important is that you have each other.
After finishing with dinner, I often move my centerpiece to a place where I can still enjoy the flowers. Here is the centerpiece in my living room. We can enjoy them by the fireplace.
As with everything I post on my blogs, please feel free to comment or if you have any questions, please email me through my contact page. I welcome it anytime!
Design with your heart™️
Happy entertaining my friends!
Mary
“May your home be a place where friends meet, family gathers, and love grows. ”
David Austin Roses
