A Blessed Thanksgiving Centerpiece DIY

Happy 4th Tuesday of the month, y’all! Our friend and hostess Cindy from County Road 407 has chosen a lovely autumn vignette for us to emulate in our Thanksgiving Centerpiece challenge today. This month’s influencers have pulled out their best design ideas to share. We hope you gather some new ideas to try on your tables this holiday season…

Welcome long-time friends and also to new friends coming over from our mutual friend Michelle at Thistle Key Lane! If this is your first here visiting French Ethereal, a hearty welcome to you! If you like what you see, please consider subscribing to my blog.

I appreciate you all!! 😀

And wasn’t Michelle’s centerpiece just beautiful? Pumpkins really lend everything a soft, ethereal touch, don’t they?

I love every Pinterest Challenge. Each one is unique and fun to create, but somehow the holiday challenges have something just magical about them! This one begins this magical season…

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Our Inspiration

This month, our inspiration comes from Deborah’s site, Hip & Humble (H&H). This sweet fall tablescape featured along with several others in this post. I love how the soft textured placemats contrast with the rougher faux pumpkin’s weave (at each placesetting) and with that of the bark round. The real pumpkin sitting as the centerpiece’s focal point lends its own textural richness.

Subtle hues in the muted pinecones’ colors along with the checkered napkins and table runner add autumnal richness to the table. Soft blacks in the candlesticks, the high hoop-back Windsor chairs, and in the stoneware plates are a nice contrast to the the brighter but still soft fall colors..

Simple, elegant and a beautiful country style, which I love!

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My DIY Takeaway

Here my turkey centerpiece is showing his “best side,” lol! Actually, he is so darn cute all the way around, I made it a point to make this side attractive with adding real and faux cream colored pumpkins along with several types of small pinecones.

DIY TIPS: Adding texture, creating layers, and contrasting darks with light hues is my tip for creating an interesting centerpiece your guests will enjoy.

For me, I LOVE all of the textures with the fall plaid in our inspiration piece!

I have an upcoming tea post with new fall plaid placemats I found at Hobby Lobby and I tried one here:

I wasn’t loving how the turkey blended into the table ~ too many neutral colors with not enough color to balance and make the turkey stand out. As he is completely neutral in color and blends into the golden hues of our antique farm table, more color needed to surround him, so that’s what I did. 😉

So I swapped out the plaid placemat for a gorgeous linen dishcloth I found in a two-pack by ShabbyChic at HomeGoods in late summer (not available online). Now our turkey stands out and shines as our centerpiece.

With it, I brought in more texture and the neutral colors from our inspiration with the goldenrod braided round placemats. Those I layered with gold chargers from my stash, then topped with new brown floral toile transferware dinner plates also found at Hobby Lobby.

(I’ve been shopping… Don’t tell Mr. Ethereal, lol!) 😉

Surrounded by dark and light colored pinecones, the high contrast between the darker pinecones and the lighter hued turkey makes our gobbling friend stand out and shine as our centerpiece!

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Finding the right centerpiece

A couple of years ago, I found this woven resin turkey at Buc-Ees, of all places, in their gift shop right after Thanksgiving. I knew it would be perfect for a Thanksgiving table in the future! If you haven’t been to a Buc-Ees gas station and general store, they sell baked goods, have a bbq station and a candy-making station set up for quick lunches and dinners. Plus, they sell cookbooks, have a really nice selection of kitchenwares, farmhouse home decor signs, as well as their signature Buc-Ees t-shirts featuring their beaver logo. It’s kind of a one-stop store/gas station with super clean restrooms. I love going there! (Can you tell??) 😉

My turkey inspiration also came about as I was wishing I could find a colorful Fitz & Floyd turkey but not finding one which I could afford. Years ago, I would see them at the day-after-Christmas-sales, but I don’t think I was interested then.

This sweet boy is a good substitute! 😉

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Surrounding your centerpiece with interesting items

In our inspiration, mini fall-colored pinecones hanging from garlands wrapped around a central pumpkin makes them look like they are floating. I love this look!

I didn’t have a garland like this; however, I do have a large basket filled with pinecones of all types and sizes from Jeffrey pinecones to loblolly (very pokey!), sugar pine (super large and long!) to these tiny red, Jack and Scotch pinecones here on the table.

While dropping things off at our local thrift shops this summer, I found a sweet Thanksgiving pilgrim boy just waiting to come out and play here in our tablescape!

Adding this candlelit figurine along with two sets of harvest-themed salt & pepper shakers brings in more of the autumnal colors needed to brighten up this table setting. By adding their textural contrast ~ smooth-vs-rough textures ~ this creates further visual tension making each play well off the other.

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Creating the Big Picture

Here is our finished table ~ bright, fun and with a good balance of textures, both smooth and rough.

I used my Johnson Bros. brown transferware mugs for this tablescape. Only having two of those, I decided to go “mismatched” by adding two creamware mugs for the other two placesettings. This is a fun way to change-up your table’s look!

Mismatching plates and tableware are perfectly acceptable in today’s modern table settings, and it is something I do quite often when laying out our dining table.

If you are looking for an affordable turkey centerpiece, this one I found on Wayfair is on sale just now for a good price. (Not sponsored but sure is cute!)

Thanks for stopping by today! Up next is Carol at Bluesky at Home who also set her stunning table with a beautiful turkey… Please enjoy your visit around to all of our participants! Those links are just below for you. <3

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Many blessings to you & your family this holiday season,