Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. I love preparing all the traditional dishes and gathering around the table to share a special meal with family. As much as I enjoy the food, creating a beautiful table is half the fun! This year I experimented with a modern palette of turquoise, burgundy, and orange for our Thanksgiving table decor and I love how it turned out! I mixed in some simple handmade elements such as paper leaves glued to branches, painted pumpkin napkin rings and this pretty "gather" centerpiece.
Give Thanks Backdrop and Buffet Decor
To set the scene for our special holiday meals, I always like to decorate the wall above our dining room buffet to make it the focal point. This wood "Give Thanks" sign was the perfect inspiration piece. I surrounded it with a few gold paper fans to make a more substantial impact on the wall. The leaf design on the bottom of the sign inspired the leaf covered branches I made for the buffet and table.
Buffet Decor
To make these colorful branches, I just free-hand cut leaves in my turquoise, burgundy, and orange color palette using paper from this colorful paper pack. Then I just hot glued the leaves to branches. I styled the branches in a vase and added a tall arrangement on each side of the buffet.
To round out the rest of the buffet I incorporated two turquoise foam pumpkins, one of which I set on this wood patterned cake stand to help vary the height of the arrangement (one of my favorite tricks for creating an eye-pleasing grouping is to vary the height). I also pulled in some items from around my home including this DIY gold foiled champagne bucket and these DIY embroidery hoop orbs which are so easy to make and are the most versatile year-round decor accents!
Thanksgiving Table Decor
I used simple materials to create an elegant Thanksgiving table. As a hassle-free alternative to a tablecloth, I rolled out a length of this turquoise gossamer roll and cut to size. I then layered this gold glitter table runner on top. I decorated the table runner with more of the colorful leaf branches, painted natural pine cones, a couple gold dipped pumpkins, and these gold mercury candle holders for some candlelight ambiance.
This "gather" centerpiece was a special craft I made for the table and plan to repurpose as seasonal decor for many Thanksgivings to come! You can find the full tutorial here.
I don't think you can have a Thanksgiving meal without a pumpkin pie, so I placed ours prominently in the middle of the table with a few paper leaves slotted underneath to add a pop of color.
Place Settings
To make extra special place settings for each guest, I started with a beautiful gold charger and layered a premium white plastic dinner plate on top of each. I topped the plate with a cloth napkin and a DIY pumpkin napkin ring that does double duty as a place card (and a special favor the guests can take home!). Find the full tutorial here!
To keep clean-up simple I opted for disposable yet gorgeous metallic gold cutlery slotted into these pretty Give Thanks silverware holders and high-end looking patterned plastic wine glasses for our drinks. I love being able to create an elegant look without having to do the dishes after the meal!
If you'd like to add some handmade touches to your own Thanksgiving meal, be sure to check out the simple craft tutorials for the "gather" centerpiece and painted pumpkin napkin rings.
