Okay, before I begin, let me confess that my title is considerably more pretentious than I mean it to be. Because I don’t know “how to” layer a Thanksgiving table. I only know how to layer my Thanksgiving table.

And, while I am firmly in the moral absolutes crowd, I am much more wishy-washy when it comes to hard line decorating do’s and don’ts. Which…is probably why, when my husband said, “Uh, those aren’t Thanksgiving colors,” I just shrugged and said, “Oh well, I like them!”

So, there you have it, my best bit of advice for creating a successful Thanksgiving table: decorate it how you like it.

#dropsthemike

Ahem. No, but seriously. I do love me a good layered look (minimalist who? not me) without veering into clutter, so I gave that tricky and far from succinctly titled decor challenge a go.

How’d it turn out? Well, it ended up looking a little something like this.

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And I like it. So, there’s that.

So, here we go with how I made it happen.

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I’m guessing the progression is pretty obvious, but from top left and then traveling left to right and downward, I added:

  1. A tablecloth–I bought this one at Anthropologie back in the spring on maaaaaajor sale
  2. A $5 Walmart burlap/lace table runner
  3. 6 Texas Longhorns burnt orange plates from the Dollar Store–for, yes, $1 each.
  4. White $1 (Dollar Store) salad plates, Anthropologie (you guessed it, on MAJOR sale) polka dot napkins, and aqua mason jars from Walmart
  5. A container filled mason jars filled with $0.97 bunches of fake flowers from Walmart. #classy
  6. Some chalkboard pumpkins that I made at a pumpkin painting girls’ night + some clearance fake acorns from Target
  7. $0.87 Clearance place mats from Target
  8. Paint and Prose place cards + gold polka dot straws I had in my pantry

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Honestly, I didn’t use one single thing that I didn’t already have for this table setting, and I had collected the various items you see over a long period of time. I’m a big proponent of using what you already have and investing in pieces (like that tablecloth) that make a big impact when you find them at a really great price.

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Not too surprisingly, there’s a LOT of color on my table, but I like to balance things out with neutrals–like those black pumpkins (So easy! You just spray paint them with chalkboard paint–I recommend Rustoleum–and then go at them with a chalk pen) and the beige/white napkins.

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I honestly don’t know beans about formal dining, so if you’re an expert, and you see things out of place, I’m not surprised. Fortunately, I don’t dine with people who know beans about formal stuff either, so they won’t care.

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Mismatched cutlery?! Gasp! (P.S. Those cute napkins rings were $0.50 each from Kirkland’s a while back).

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I like a lot of things about my table (duh; I chose them), but other than the pumpkins, my favorite have to be these cute little place cards that Lindsay and I designed for Paint and Prose. I’ll tell you more about them in a second.

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Last year, for Christmas, the kids and I painted acorns and strung them in a garland. It was a lot of fun, and I still have them, but I wasn’t too sad when I found a box of faux acorns already painted gold for $3 at Target.

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They may not be Thanksgiving colors, but I don’t think anyone could deny that they are happy ones!

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So, what about you guys? Do you decorate your table specially for Thanksgiving? I don’t usually go all out like this, certainly, but our Sunday schedule got kind of muddled when my sweet new niece (remember Hannah’s maternity pics?) decided to make a very exciting, VERY FAST (Hannah was supposed to go to the hospital, but ended up having Eliyana on the bathroom floor, with my brother as her “attending physician!!”) debut into the world at 1:50ish in the morning. I was there from about 2:15 until 6, and the rest of Sunday was a blur, with naps at weird times, no church, and an entire afternoon that I could have spent either a) cleaning or b) playing dress-up with my table.

I guess you can see which one I chose.

But back to those place cards.

They have a super-cute little place setting of their own on the front…

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And then…a big juicy turkey on the back.

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Fun, yes?

I think so. And I hope you will too because they’ll be available in the Paint and Prose shop bright and early Monday morning. In FACT, you’ll be able to get a set of 6 for free if you order in the first 48 hours. But I’ll tell you more about that later.

P.S. Don’t forget that we’re giving away all 4 of our Christmas prints over on our Instagram AND Facebook page! Get yourself entered to win before we pick our lucky duck on Monday!

Oh, and just in case you were wondering where my children were during all of that table tweaking, the twins were down for naps, Simon and Della were alternately entertaining/annoying each other, and Ezra and Theo were just hanging out (when they weren’t hiding out under the tablecloth).

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Goodness, I love these boys!

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