June Beach Themed Tablescape

Ta-da! I'm very happy that it's now warm enough to feature my tablescapes outdoors. Thinking of warmth always makes me think of the beach and thus my June tablescape is none other than Beach themed. It features the refreshing colors of sand and water - aka - khaki brown and robins egg blue. These two happen to be my favorite color combination of the season.

This tablescape utilizes a khaki colored linen tablecloth and linen napkins that I already had on hand in my linen supply. (If you don't have these colors on hand already, I'd certainly recommend purchasing as they will give you a great neutral starting point for almost all future settings.) To add some dimension - and fun - to the tabletop I've strewn a cream colored fishnet over the top (if you can find a blue fishnet, this would also work wonderfully) and I've added decorative river rocks to the top of this setting as well. Not only do these rocks add dimension, they also work wonderfully to weigh down the tablecloth on a windy day. To make this tablescape even more 'beachy', just scatter assorted sizes and shapes of seashells.

For the focal point of the table, the centerpiece, I utilized a clear and large footed vase. It's difficult to tell from this photo but tiny shell vase filler fills the bottom few inches of the vase. This filler gives off a beautifully irredescent shine when the sun hits the tiny pieces. If you are uanble to locate this type of filler, sand vase filler will work equally as well. I've placed another tulip shaped vase filled with a blue candle a top the filler. I originally decided to utilize two vases inside of each other as I was going to fill the large vase with water and add in live tropical fish - in wonderful shades of blue and purple. I even went to my local pet shop to purchase the fish when I decided that I just couldn't go through with it. It would have created a great effect and would have been a huge wow factor, but I didn't know what to do with the fish after the fact. I just knew that if I purchased fish, mine would be the ones that lived forever and being that I'm not a fish person and being that I couldn't bear flushing the fish after the fact, I decided against the purchase. But, if you or your kids would love fish as pets for awhile, I'd certainly recommend adding fish to this centerpiece. :-)

Above is the beach themed placesetting. I used creamish colored outdoor charger plates. (Believe it or not, these are plastic although they look like they are painted tin!) I love the shabby chic look of these chargers. Linen napkins were placed atop the chargers and these lovely blue starfish not only help integrate the blue color of the table, but they also serve a few more purposes. They help weigh down the napkin in case of wind, they can serve as a guest favor, and by adding a white card, they also serve as a placecard for the evening's seating assignments.

I also integrated the starfish blue color into the centerpiece.

Isn't this blue color lovely? It makes me long for the ocean!

Above is a full view of the centerpiece. I found creamish shades of drift wood, stood them up, and tied them to the vase with a ribbon featuring the colors of blue, brown, and cream. While creating this, I thought it was perhaps a bit too unique, but the more I looked at it, the more I loved it. It adds a great amount of height, plus you could hang all sorts of lovelies of the branches.

I hung some starfish off my driftwood branches, but you can just as easily hang seashells, sand dollars, flowers, or even tiny lights off of these pieces. I've even seen pieces of your night's menu hanging off of similar branches. How cool would it be to hang sea shell shaped cookies off of these branches or even decadent chocolates or fruits?

It's difficult to tell from this photo, but the above napkin fold is perfect for holding this starfish in place as the 4 uplifted points elevate both the starfish and placecard wonderfully. And even the name of this napkin fold works perfectly with our beach and water theme - Water Lily.

Below are the directions:

- This design requires a well-starched napkin.

1. Fold the corners of the napkin into the center and press flat.

2. Repeat the same process a second time - the napkin should be much smaller at this point.

3. Holding the center points together, carefully turn the napkin over.

4. Fold the four corners into the centre again - this time do not press.

5. Holding the center firmly, partly pull out the previous folds from under each corner and gently pull them upwards to make the petals.

6. Pull out the corners from underneath between the petals, to form the base leaves of the lilly.

If you are a visual person and need to visually see how to create this napkin fold, please visit this link. They use a paper napkin to create their fold, but you can just as easily use a cloth napkin. They also leave their lilly a bit higher than my folded napkin, but it will give you the idea.

I've created a slideshow with more and closer views of this beach themed tablescape.

To view them all, just click here.

Tablescape Ingredients:

Linen Tablecloth - Online or at Home Stores

Linen Napkins - Home Stores

Decorative Fish Net - Online or at Garden Ridge

Decorative River Rocks -Michaels or other craft store

Starfish Favors - Crossroads Cottage, Online, or at Garden Ridge

Shabby Chic Outdoor Chargers - Garden Ridge

Tall Footed Vase - Online or at Garden Ridge

Smaller Tulip Vase - Online or at Garden Ridge

Irredescent Shall Vase Filler - Purchased at Garden Ridge in their candle section.

Driftwood Branches - Available at most craft stores. Mine were purchased at Garden Ridge

Placecard Tags - Available at most craft stores. Mine were purchased at Jo Ann Fabrics

Blue Pillar Candle - Available at most home stores. I purchased mine at Wal-Mart

Other possible additions to a beach/nautical tablescape:

Chocolate Starfish Favors: Available online

Seagrass Placemats: Available online

Coral Placemat & Napkin: Available online

Seaside Awning Stripes Tablecloth: Available online

Rope Coil Placemat: Available online

Twig Tablerunner: Available online

Bamboo Placemat: Available online

Coco twig Runner: Available online

Spring Vines Placemat: Available online

Starfish Teacups & Saucers: Available online

Twig Salad Server Set: Available online

Seafare Condiment Serving Set: Available online

Seafare Oyster Serving Set: Available online

Assorted Seashells: Available online

We've also added many outdoor, nautical, and beach themed event items to our site including:

Genuine Starfish

Sea Shell Votive Candles

Sand Dollar Embellishments

River Stones Candy

To view all event items available at Crossroads Cottage, just click here.

Above view of tablescape!