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Decorate Your Coffee Table for Fall ~ August Pinterest Challenge

Welcome to our August Pinterest Challenge hosted by my friend Cindy of County Road 407, and if you are new to my blog, French Ethereal, a hearty welcome to you! For all of my friends and for everyone stopping by from Lora B. at Create and Ponder, I’m glad you are back for a visit. 

This month’s Pinterest Challenge is all about creating a coffee table display gathering ideas and inspiration from a beloved Pinterest photograph. Let’s check it out, shall we?


Yvonne who writes at Stone Gable created this lovely tabletop display on her gorgeous wood coffee table. Don’t you just love it? It was part of her summer home tour this past year.

Let’s look at this coffee table in more detail: 

Yvonne has an old packing crate used here as a tray to corral a fun grouping of objects. The warm woods of the tray, the gorgeous coffee table itself and a woven basket down below bring in a nice warm wood-look ~ perfect for that transitional look from summer to fall.


Yvonne also used three pieces of white stoneware which lighten up this tabletop display: an Italian pitcher holding those gorgeous hydrangeas from her yard, a small white vase topped with a sweet boxwood ball and a white acorn finial.

The finishing touches are three burlap-wrapped books used to add height for the boxwood vase, a metal mixing ball, and a polka dot insert for the bottom of her tray.

Florals and greenery bring in a nice touch of nature to this coffee table setting. My coffee-table display looks very different but still uses many of the same elements. 





Here is my tabletop display again:

Whites are always part of my decor ever since I made slipcovers for these two sofas and painted this coffee table. I looked through my collection of baskets as I was going for a wood-themed basket to gather my collected pieces. I had already used the white tobacco basket in our spring Pinterest Challenge and again when I created another summer coffee table display for the 4th of July.




And since I do have an old crate but it’s buried somewhere in our garage at present, I looked instead to my tea cart where all of our silver and tin serving pieces are stacked for another way to corral my goodies! 


LOVE this photo! It was taken late in the day with the sunlight streaming through our back living room windows. A mirror project piece is in the background waiting to be fixed (previously moved out of today’s photos).


That’s the beauty of finding a photograph of something you like on Pinterest is that you can adapt it to fit your style and what you already own. I like an English and French country style so this is what I normally look to do.

It’s not always necessary to go right out and buy something new though I certainly love to do that, too.  Just look around your home and pull in pieces from your home decor stash and begin to build your look.
🙂


The elements I pulled from our inspiration photo were having a tray to gather some of my elements, using whites and wood in my tabletop decor, and adding bits of nature and a few books for height. 

The coffee table adds its wood look with the two 1/4″ thick birch luan wood inserts replacing broken glass from long ago plus the table itself is painted carved wood.

Here I’ve brought in pearly white Sarah’s Garden tea cups from my Wedgwood tea set, a gift from my husband for Mother’s Day one year. I’ve paired them with my Royal Winton’s Welbeck teapot bringing in pops of yellow and some much-needed florals. 

Two interior design books by favorite authors, Charles Faudrée and Courtney Allison (who writes the blog French Country Cottage blog), plus an English flower press bring in the stacked look and add lift to my father’s retirement present, a life-size American Goldfinch crafted by renowned Fairfield, Connecticut wood carver Dave Farrington.  

My gardening gloves were over in the laundry room as they are freshly cleaned (I’d pulled a noxious poison ivy weed with them!) so I added them here for even more nods to nature.

For a bit of metal candle holders in sparkly gold and ombré were brought in. Inside are two pumpkin-scented tea light candles which will scent our home nicely as we move into fall next month. 


Since I was going for a late summer-early fall look, I brought over the bee skep pillow I found at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center summer-sale  in June, and added the pumpkin pillow found at HomeGoods during an end-of-season sale last fall with its bright pops of teal. 

These two pillows round out the look I wanted with repeats of yellow, a look of golden grasses and a bit more florals. They also really complement the chintz flowers in the Welbeck teapot and tie everything together in this early fall coffee table vignette.



A quick recap:

Although my tabletop look is different than the inspiration photograph, I’ve carried over all of the same elements of the Stone Gable coffee table with the use of whites, stoneware, florals, woods and a bit of metal. The use of all of these elements together create a nice balance and welcoming coffee table look.

How will you use this to inspire you in your home decor?


Many thanks again to Cindy of County Road 407 for hosting our Pinterest Challenge and I hope you’ll stop over and visit Paula at Sweet Pea who is next as well as the other ladies on today’s tour. Please come back by if you don’t have time to visit everyone today ~ the links will be here! 












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Sunday Sentiments ~ Fill My Cup, Lord

Sunday Sentiments  this month is about giving our best. I was invited to a friend’s birthday party and last minute I realized I hadn’t picked up a present. What is one to do? Look for a treasure of one’s own to pass on… 🙂



My friend Carrie is the same friend whom I shared a post about organizing her trailer when we lived at Wagon Master RV Park. I helped to re-organize her kitchen and her trailer’s closets over a couple of weeks and this little bit of kindness really helped my friend!

July is her birthday month and as I previously mentioned I did not have a gift for her, so… I shopped my home! In my corner-round display hutch I have probably 50+ teacups and saucers. Mr. Ethereal and I are seriously looking at all the items we had shipped back to Texas from our two storage units. What should stay and what should go? More and more is heading into the garage for a future garage sale, and rightly these things should pass on to new homes.  😉



I do love this teacup set with its expression of faith but I thought my friend would enjoy it more. Carefully I wrapped up this green, tan and pink set placing it inside a pretty gift bag. I found a perfectly new journal already tied with a bow that I had never used and placed that inside the bag, too.


Time came for the birthday party and Carrie was thrilled with all the lovely gifts she received from her friends! She now lives in a group home so these sweet gifts from friends will be happy mementos for her.


“Like the woman at the well, I was seeking
For things that could not satisfy.
And then I heard my Savior speaking—
“Draw from My well that never shall run dry.” 

Fill my cup, Lord; I lift it up Lord;
Come and quench this thirsting of my soul.
Bread of Heaven, feed me till I want no more.
Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole.

There are millions in this world who are seeking
For pleasures earthly goods afford.
But none can match the wondrous treasure
That I find in Jesus Christ my Lord.

So my brother if the things that this world gives you
Leave hungers that won’t pass away,
My blessed Lord will come and save you
If you kneel to Him and humbly pray—”

hymn by Richard Blanchard, 1925 – 2004






I am happy to give Carrie a special memory of the teas we shared at the park after our walks on cold and rainy days. We both miss those sweet and precious times.

God always finds the right gifts… 🙂


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Happy tea,
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An English Breakfast tea in the Garden…

Summertime breakfast  enjoyed outdoors is heavenly and on this lovely, perfect summer morning a breakfast table set for two was laid…

Ready for a friend to visit and a morning tête a tête as soft breezes whisper through shady overhead branches…

Lord, grant that our time together be steeped in serenity, sweetened by sharing, and surrounded by the warm fragrance of your love. Amen.

 A Teatime Blessing ~ If Teacups Could Talk, Emilie Barnes
We settle in for a nice breakfast warmed by the summer sun complete with fresh cranberry biscotti and a chocolate croissant
to share. German wine glasses provide cool water while hot tea (just one cup, please!) and a small prayer warm the soul.

A bit of a European breakfast, really! 😉


A mid-century rose-strewn  tablecloth begins the scene for this rosy tea. Goldenrod placemats are laid next reminding us of summertime harvests coming soon. 

English pink transferware plates act as chargers and repeat the deep pink of the tablecloth’s roses. 

Vining Limoges luncheon plates are last to be set on this summery table and another chair is pulled up in case another friend shows. This chair adds it’s warm wicker beauty to the day…


English Breakfast tea is served in mismatched teacups; a silver spoon rests casually alongside. Simple napkins with pink checked edging are older Simply Shabby Chic ~ large enough to cover one’s lap and dainty enough for this casual breakfast.

Previously two visitors came for their own tasty treats…
😉

Late this week my mother-in-love is coming for a visit with my father-in-law. This table setting may just well appear again for my tea drinking family!

“If you are cold, tea will warm you; If you are too heated it will cool you; If you are depressed, it will cheer you; If you are exhausted, it will calm you.”

William Ewart Gladstone, shared in If Teacups Could Talk
by Emilie Barnes

A stack of dishes when breakfast is done… Prettiness in a cup.
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Friday at the Fire Station ~ A Fireman’s Wife


Happy tea to you,