Easter Place Settings

Easter Place Settings were on my mind this week. This is one of the plates from a set of Laura Ashley dishes and that set is the inspiration for the Easter Place Settings this year. I don’t mind telling you that I do love plates and dishes and have collected a few. I picked up a set of these at Old Time Pottery several years ago. Isn’t it gorgeous?

Thinking that it would be fun to have a bunny salad plate for the Easter place settings, I recalled seeing one at a local store. A shopping trip was in order and, of course, when I got there, only two were left and one looked like somebody had the shakes when he was painting that little rabbit. Great.

So, I went to Pier 1 Imports to look for some. Yes, they had some in a cute little box but they were much more brightly colored than I had wanted. I found another box with a little bit of rose color in the design. I opened the box and looked at the plates.

Another shopper and I had the same idea. This kind woman said she had to confess that she loves dishes and buys them like some women buy shoes. She said her husband was in the car and he ordered her not to buy another dish.

She was clutching a box of the bunny salad plates as she told me this. I looked at her and suggested that she wasn’t buying another dish. She would be buying four plates.

She gave me a quizzical look, then, laughed and said, “I am going to use that!”

Easter Place Settings – Putting It All Together

Aren’t these little plates adorable? Well, they even look more adorable sitting on top of the Laura Ashley plates. You won’t want to cover the bunnies up with napkins or other dishes!

Originally, my plan was to use these green and pink floral napkins I made a couple of years ago but they were just too intense for the bunny plates. Although they do look great with the Laura Ashley plates, you can see that the floral print overpowered the little bunny designs on the white plates.

This muted celery-colored fabric napkin looked more compatible with the pastels of the bunny. It doesn’t “fight” for attention with the bunny.

Pier 1 also had some fern chargers that caught my eye. They were really nice but they were fifteen dollars each! Well, I contemplated how I could recreate those without the big price tag. You can see in the picture above that I placed some silk fern fronds that I had in storage under the plate but it looks a little less than spectacular. Too sparse, don’t you think? They looked way better in my mind…

Silver chargers came to mind. Pulling those out of the dining room buffet, placing them on the table, adding the green fern fronds, and the plates on top of those still didn’t seem to do the trick. Maybe the fern fronds need to be attached to something to make them more uniform. Sophie and I tried manipulating and placing them on the charger and under the charger. Maybe this is a project for later, not today.

One of the fronds fell next to the teapot and it hit me that it actually added something to the tablescape. I pointed this out to Sophie and we agreed it looked better there than under the plates!

Cloche and Bird’s Nest

This little cloche is lined with some of the moss leftovers from the quirky spring mantel project. The bird’s nest and eggs were leftover from the spring wreath project a couple of years ago. It doesn’t really show up that well.

Originally, tulips were in the plan but they were just too tall. Pink roses replaced the tulips. Cut to a better length, they look quite nice.

When I was shopping, I spotted this little bird nest with eggs.

The pink on the eggs and flowers mimic the pink in the bunny plates and the pink teapot. The flowers on the nest needed a little tweaking. I thought by reworking the ribbon, this little nest would be perfect.

You can see the ribbon is removed. The flowers were opened up and tweaked a little. What a difference it makes when you just work on the silk flowers a little! They get all wonky during shipping and being tossed around at the store.

This looks much more spring-like, doesn’t it? You can see the little pastel yellow ribbon is made into a bow and glued onto the nest. A few minor changes made a major difference! (Note the fern fronds under the bunny. They actually give the tablescape some weight and stability.)

Tablescape

The addition of a larger bird nest with the tissue paper eggs from a project last year is another element of the tablescape. It is good to repeat design elements when you are creating a visual.

If you had asked if we have pastel pink in our home decor, I would have said, “No!”

Although I love the color, that is just not one I use in decorating. Yet, this tablescape is pulled together with pink! The teapot is one from a collection inherited from my grandmother. The white rabbit has pink on his ears. One of the tissue-covered eggs is pink. A pink ribbon tied around the vase helps weave the pink color throughout the tablescape.

Remember the “tin foil bunny how to” from a couple of years ago? Note that he has a pink ribbon around his neck, too!

It is good to pull your table together with color and repetition of elements. Although the original plan was to utilize the fern fronds under the plates, they ended up as a base for the tablescape! Be flexible! I’m pretty happy with the end results. What do you think? Has it inspired you to create your own, or at least, given you some ideas?

Wishing you all a Happy Easter!