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Last year my wonderful mother-in-law had us a custom red table cloth made for our extra long dining table. And my sister-in-law embroidered beautiful linen napkins to go with it. So this was the perfect opportunity to do something fun this year. Because I have blue lamps and a very large blue painting in my dining room I decided to go with blue and red. And if you know me by now you know I love to do something a little unexpected! No traditional red and green this year. (Although, I still love the traditional decor.)
So I have this great idea to make a red and blue dinning room for Christmas but I wasn't excited about anything I found. And my blue wasn't an easy blue to find. I had almost given up until I found IT! You know, the piece that inspires everything you do around it. And of course, I found it at HomeGoods. I found these adorable hand painted red and white plaid ornaments made in Holland.
My next score was the blue ornaments with the silver glitter. They were just gorgeous. So I bought all that I could find in hopes it would be enough to decorated an entire dining room. I think it turned out pretty good! And it was so much fun. The colors really made me think outside the box. I found some lovely silver and red ornaments at Tuesday Morning that I threw in with the mix.
I also found these cute snowflake ornaments at Michael's and just cut the string and tied them on.
I really love how they look. They just add another dimension to the look. Elegant with rustic.
Here is our big blue painting in the background. You might recognize it from our Thanksgiving photos. I love my painting but as you can see its quite large. So I usually try to tie it in someway with my decorations. Also, in this photo you can see that my Homegoods blue sparkle table cloth is just folded in half. I was wanting a large square tablecloth to layer with my red but I couldn't find the right size. I was planning to cut and sew it but alas, too much to do!!!
Here are some tips for decorating your table
- Mix more expensive items with less expensive items. Not everything has to cost a fortune.
- Don't think you have to get everything at once. If I find something I love I buy it knowing I will collect other pieces to go with it in the coming years.
- Layer, Layer, Layer. I feel like you need three main layers minimum.
- I still believe in the real candles for the dining room table. I use good artificial candles elsewhere.
- Monogram napkins are one of my favorite ways to make my decor look rich and expensive. I definitely think they are worth the investment.
- Real florals and greenery are the way to go most of the time but that can get costly or you just might not have the time to tend to them. By buying good artificial greenery it lasts year after year.
I almost never use china. I prefer to mix and mingle my good stuff with more casual stuff. I think this makes for a more welcoming setting. I don't want guest to sit down and be afraid to touch anything. Here I use my good silver and crystal glasses with these cute silver snowflake plates i found years ago at Marshalls and these red chargers from Michaels. The place mats are from Dillards. I found them on clearance for 2.50 a piece. Score!
Did you notice my tree centerpiece in front of the mirror. I could have easily gone with the traditional wreath over the mirror and a floral centerpiece, however, by using the tree it catches the eye because it is cute for one thing, but its unexpected! It totally makes people take a double take and say wow! I never would have thought of that!
So for my little tree I was pretty much out of ornaments so I went on the hunt again. I found the perfect ornaments to compliment our blue and red Christmas theme. I found these cute vintage stripe ornaments at
Michael's! I found a few other ornaments here and there and tied them on with a cute blue bow. I love how this turned out.
I had some of the ornaments left over so I decide that they would be perfect as place card holders. But I needed a quick and easy solution . So all I did was glue plastic rings (you can find them in the sewing department) on the bottom for the base. Then, because I was running out of time I ditched all the complicated ideas floating around in my head for double side tape. I thought, why does this need to be complicated?!? I just bought name cards, and used double stick tape inside and secured the card on the ornament hook. Ridiculously easy! This is a super easy way to turn any ornament into a name place holder.
So I'm keeping it short this time because I know everyone is in the Holiday rush. So I hope you found some ideas that will come in useful. And if you enjoyed this post I would love to hear your comments or any question you have at the bottom of this article. And if you would like to read more of my post just subscribe by adding your email in the black box on the right side of the screen. You can even follow me on Instagram, Pintrest. and Bloglovin.
Happy Holidays!
