My Neutral Thanksgiving Tablescape

I set the same neutral thanksgiving tablescape every year now, and I stopped trying to reinvent it around the time I realized nobody remembers the table, they remember whether dinner was relaxed. I start with the World Market round faux rattan placemats.

Round placemats on a rectangular table is the small thing that makes a table look considered, and the wipe off part matters more than I want to admit with gravy involved. The Pottery Barn Botanical Harvest bird salad plates go on top. They come mixed, so every place setting is a little different, and people always pick theirs up to look at it.

The Fantastical Forest napkins are the pattern in the room, and I would let those be the only pattern besides the plates. Down the middle I use the Pottery Barn antler taper centerpiece, which holds candles and gives the table height without blocking anyone. If somebody has to lean around your centerpiece to talk, the centerpiece lost.

The modern taper candles are what I put in it, and I buy the cream ones and light them before people arrive so they are already burned down a little and look lived in. Around the base I scatter the foil leaves and pinecone vase filler, and tuck in the faux cream millet bundle, which is the piece that keeps everything from looking too formal.

The figural pumpkin pie candlepot goes on the sideboard rather than the table, because it is charming and it is also the thing kids want to touch. Last is the Crate and Barrel Thankful brass trivet, which is functional and also the only word on the table, so it does the whole holiday message for me. Brown, cream and brass, and that is the whole palette. No orange anywhere.