According to the calendar, it’s October. Unfortunately, it doesn’t feel the least little bit like fall in North Carolina this year. The thermostat hasn’t dropped below the mid-eighties, and the leaves are firmly clinging to their branches with no change of color in sight. However, even though Mother Nature hasn’t gotten the memo, autumn is upon us. And since I am thoroughly over the hot sticky weather, I’m embracing all things fall. What comes to mind most when I think about autumn (other than the much-coveted pumpkin spice latte), is the harvest. So, in hopeful anticipation of crisp cool weather and the crunch of colorful leaves beneath my feet, I decided to create a bountiful fall harvest tablescape.

If you read my blog on the regular, you know that I am a huge fan of sunflowers. I particularly like to incorporate these bright and showy flowers into my fall decorating.

Centerpiece For Fall Harvest Tablescape

Since sunflowers say autumn to me, I wanted to use them in the centerpiece for my fall harvest tablescape. Because my floral arrangement also needed to convey my harvest theme, I chose a variety of garden vegetables instead of additional flowers or greenery, to fill out the rest of the arrangement.

I had seen several stunning arrangements featuring vegetables arranged in large colanders on Pinterest and thought I’d try to make something similar. However, when I discovered this rustic green metal basket at the Brass Exchange (my favorite local decor shop), I immediately changed my mind. This super cute basket seemed like the perfect container for my centerpiece because I could easily imagine carrying it out to the garden to gather fresh-picked vegetables.

Since the metal basket is not watertight, I lined the bottom with a garbage bag. I then placed three fully-saturated Oasis flower foam bricks inside. I like to begin my design by establishing the height of the arrangement. It’s essential when creating a centerpiece, to make sure that seated guests can easily see over it. Once I gauged how high I wanted the arrangement to be, I inserted the tallest bloom in the center, and then surrounded it on four sides with slightly shorter flowers.

Next, before adding any more sunflowers, I inserted my greenery. If you place all your feature flowers in the arrangement before you add the greenery, your filler can end up obscuring the blooms you want to stand out. To emphasize my fall harvest theme, I chose Ruby Red Leaf Lettuce and Broccolini Rabe as my greens. I love the color of the red tipped lettuce leaves, and the broccolini florets provide great texture. Because the flimsy leaf lettuce is difficult to push into the floral foam, I created a hole with my shears for each bundle of lettuce leaves.

Once the arrangement was nicely filled out, I added the rest of my sunflowers. I finished off the centerpiece with a few artichokes and several bunches of radishes which I wired to bamboo skewers.

Fall Harvest Tablescape

Initially, I was going to use a darker plaid table covering for this Fall Harvest Tablescape. But after creating the centerpiece, I remembered my grandmother’s vintage linen tablecloth that matched the green basket perfectly. This look turned out to be a bit more summery than I planned. But I was inspired by the way the green elements all worked together, so I just went for it.

My green Lennox Poppy buffet plates, along with red, green, yellow and blue plaid napkins, and artificial sunflower napkin rings add more color and interest to the place setting. Small clay pots filled with a variety crudité continue the harvest theme.

When the harvest is over, most avid gardeners immediately begin to plan next year’s garden. With this in mind, I set Art Seed Packets from the Hudson Valley Seed Company at each place setting. These artist-designed seed packets serve as fun favors for guests.  A collection of different art seed packets also make great gifts for any gardeners on your Christmas list.

My fall harvest tablescape didn’t necessarily turn out the way I envisioned it. But sometimes the elements you have at hand combine to make something entirely different and perhaps, even better than your original idea. I think this is one of the most fun things about design. If you are open, there’s no telling what you can create!

If you enjoyed this post, you may be interested in:

Thanksgiving Harvest Tablescape With Apples And Pumpkins

 

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