Grand Little Place

For February’s Valentines tablescape we are going to use the neutral base of the January table to gently nudge our decor towards spring.  It is still winter, but those cold days are beginning to lose their luster as we begin to itch for the color of a new season.  In this short month we will pull out hits of pink & red as a nod to Valentines day.

Let’s take a look back at our January tablescape.  We used layers of textured neutrals with a centerpiece made with a house plant, dried flowers and a rock.  For cohesion they are grouped on a silver tray base.  The place settings were kept soft with tones of grey and white and the dominate metal for the table was silver.  The goal for January was to practice texture and the theme was ‘reset & relax’.

Looking forward into February, wanting to tip our hat to Valentines Day, go ahead and shop your house for whatever is pink & red.  Also raid any Valentines Day decor you have.  My goal is to not go out of my way to buy new things for my tables, but to practice my tablesetting skills with items I already have.  I also find that, other than Christmas (of course) I tend to approach the holidays as less of a billboard and more of a business card.  I want the feeling to be there but don’t need to cover everything with items that scream the holiday.  This color scheme is admittedly harder for me to find things for because red & pink are not my go-to decor colors, so I have less to choose from.  Here is what my at-home shopping basket looked like:

As you can see I have quite a bit of candles to choose from!  I was thrilled to have such a large selection of tapers for this month because colored candles are an easy way to make a statement.  I was also able to find coordinating napkins, some smaller Valentines Day decorations, and a few misc. pieces.  I also went ahead and pulled out gold and brass accents to mix into the table this month.  In January I wanted a table that felt lighter – so I focused on using all silver.  This month I’m ready to add back in some warmth so I’m going to mix in brass with my silver.

Now that we have shopped the house let’s get started!  The first thing I’m going to do to transition the table is remove the bread plates, napkins and candles from the January table setting.

To transition our table we will add in pops of color on the neutral bass.  The napkins are being replaced with a bolder red.  The silver napkin ring is being removed in favor of a white ceramic bow.  The bow is a novelty shape that brings a hit of whimsy to the table and feels right for Valentines Day.

Now that our place settings are in order let’s take a look at the candles.  The white tapers will be replaced with red – LOTS of red, and this time with lots of brass mixed in.

Let’s add the glassware back in too.  This time tho, let’s focus on pieces that throw light around.  The brown wine glasses and smooth glass champagne coupes from last month are getting replaced with crystal champagne glasses, the cut glass water goblets and the crystal low ball glasses.

For the finishing touch these bright pink XO cutouts (Target, many years ago) replace the bread plate on top of the grey floral china and add another hit of whimsy!

Stepping back, the calm and neutral table of January is no more.  At this point we can choose to say the tablescape is done or to play with the centerpiece.  What’s your vote?

Seeing as I have very little red decor I’m going to leave this table as is and save the smaller misc. red pieces for my kitchen centerpiece.

Make sure you are following along on Instagram to see how we dismantle this tablescape and usher in spring next month!

 

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