Kicking off the holiday season, Thanksgiving offers a moment to reflect on the past while appreciating the present. As families blend and new generations take over the family feast, traditions are passed down and personalized—and it’s this paused moment of looking back and looking ahead that inspired this year’s Thanksgiving tablescape. Pairing storied pieces with an ease as breezy as a perfect fall day, we think this table offers a refreshing way to express thankfulness for the gathering and the time with your guests. Here’s how to recreate the vibe in three steps.
Step 1. Embrace the Past with Heritage Dinnerware
There’s something comforting about enjoying the same dishes every Thanksgiving. We’re of course referring to recipes—but also the dishes themselves! Using heritage dinnerware, either inherited or collected piece by piece, is like setting your table with memories. Our favorite every fall is Autumn. With its traditional cornucopia motif introduced in 1918, this long-loved collection symbolizes abundance. And though over a century old, it always reads fresh thanks to its unconventionally crisp blue and white colors punctuated with tiny touches of orange. We played up the cornucopia theme with a serving bowl centerpiece brimming with a harvest of fruits.
Step 2. Play with Pattern, Texture & Palette
This year, we opted to enhance the subtle oranges present in Autumn with pumpkin-colored napkins (linen), candlesticks (hand-dipped), and ribbons (velvet). This brought the table to a place more traditionally harvest—but way more fun placed against a toile base. There’s an art to playfully mixing patterns; if you don’t think you have an eye for it, here’s the trick: simply stick to a palette and balance boldness with subtlety.
Step 3. Take Cues from Nature
Our best tip for tables today is to give even your most formal table of the year—the Thanksgiving feast table—a touch of welcoming informality. Nobody has mastered unstructured elegance quite like Mother Nature, and we turned to her for inspiration to finish our modern tablescape. Would Mother Nature mix metals? Of course! We went gold in candlesticks and silver in flatware. Would she fold a napkin? With the precision of blowing wind. And would she require absolute symmetry? She wouldn’t! We placed candles and glass mushrooms with playful imperfection as if they popped up themselves on a forest floor.
