Outfitting a Special Holiday Table: Add a Dash of Global Textile

It’s the season for decorating tables. For holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, dressing up the dining table makes meals feel more special. But what if your table isn’t feeling all that special?

Much like our clothing, table settings need accessories to look polished. One easy way to polish an outfit is to add a scarf in an interesting fabric. Likewise, a quick easy way to add interest to a table is to add a textile to it. I like to play with fabrics from all over the world. Today, here’s a before/after example from our dining room – with just one quick change.

Here was our table a few days ago:

Because any horizontal surface in our house is a magnet for clutter, I usually leave our dining table “half-dressed” all the time so it doesn’t get messed up. By “half-dressed” I mean I’ll set up a centerpiece and leave placemats or chargers at each spot. We can do this because the dining table is used only for eating – we work on laptops and do hobbies and crafts elsewhere in the house. Plus, the only place for a dining table in our house is in a dining room that’s separate from other rooms. So it’s not a room where we hang out, like we might do in an open floor plan. So leaving a “half-dressed” table works to keep the room nice for whenever we need it.

But truly, the table felt like it was missing something, like it was missing pants or a shirt or something you must wear to be in public.

How does this look? A little more polished?

I simply added a textile under the centerpiece area – a Japanese kimono fabric.

Here’s a close-up of the fabric:

The kimono fabric colors are perfect for an autumn table. A few more views:

By adding the patterned textile, that extra layer makes it look like there’s much more than what is actually here. There’s really only a few simple things:

• Fall garland from a craft store – I look for highest quality available
• Acorns collected during walks around the neighborhood – I come home with pockets bulging like chipmunk cheeks
• White pumpkins – must remember these are real pumpkins, before they rot into a gooey mess!
• Mix of brass and wood candlesticks
• Celadon ceramic pieces from World Market, and Baan Celadon in Chiang Mai, Thailand
• Rattan chargers from a store in Bangkok
• Gold leaf chargers from Crate & Barrel but I got them at an estate sale for only $2 each! At a $1M house down the road – love estate sales at those homes.

So if your table feels like it’s missing “something,” try adding a textile to it and see if you like it better. You can easily add a length of fabric as a runner or tablecloth. No sewing required. I watch eBay for kimono and obi fabrics which are often sold in 14″ wide strips which are a perfect size for table runners. You can find scraps of sari fabrics on eBay too. Keep an eye open for nontraditional table ideas like embroidered scarves and patterned shawls in the clothing area. Mostly, look for textiles with lots of color and pattern – they will go a long way to liven things up, much like adding a colorful scarf to your outfit!

Also you can see a very different look on this table with a different Japanese textile as a table runner in a table setting I created for the Christmas holidays.