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Don't just break out the good china. Three designers show you how to make your table as festive as the season demands, using everything from copper pot-scrubbers to exotic orchids.
Rob Schaefer,
314-367-4848 x 16
The “color story” for Rob Schaefer’s tabletop (left) was black, silver, gold and copper; he wanted to create a “multi-denominational” tabletop that would work for any holiday party. “It was about glamour, fantasy, more of a New Year’s look,” he says. Schaefer is a master of materials, and for his high, dramatic centerpieces, he used materials as disparate as gold bullion and black lava rock from Home Depot (which rang in at $2.99 a bag). The chargers are stone floor tiles, also from Home Depot; the napkin rings are little girls’ hair scrunchies, the candleholders artfully altered metallic pot scrubbers. Juxaposed with these brilliant hardware-store adaptations are luxurious touches like traditional French flatware, an overlay in a sequined cobra print, gold damask napkins and pillows wrapped like gifts in black velvet ribbon.
Rose Roberts,
314-799-4555
Rose Roberts’ holiday table (left) has a back story: she built her centerpiece—in fact, the whole table—around a friend’s family heirloom, a stuffed pheasant she’s long admired during visits to his house. “That was my initial inspiration,” she says. “It was shot by my friend’s father in 1930, when he was about 10.” Each plate is decorated with an image of a pheasant at its center and dressed up with “gold napkins and pretty silverware.” Roberts used brown and gold leaves and oversized berries in yellow and gold to further evoke the atmosphere of late fall. With its hunt-club motif and use of autumnal colors, it’s “not so much of a Christmas table,” but has a rich, masculine look that’s perfect for late-fall parties and Thanksgiving.
Trisha Haislar,
225 W. Main, Collinsville, Ill., 314-993-1717/618-344-1901
A pomegranate-red tablecloth and a low, distressed urn brimming over with red roses and hydrangeas gives Trisha Haislar’s tabletop (right) a Tuscan feel. The white china edged in soft green and red pillar candles provide a traditional, Christmasy color scheme, but the Cybidium orchids—strung together into garlands on delicate silver wire—add a bit of whimsy. “It’s very much a classic look,” Haislar agrees, “but with a little twist.” The buffet is also dressed up with florals, with a rose-and-orchid wreath and silver pastry stand filled with grapes and a lush tumble of flowers. At each setting on this intimate table, which seats only four, an orchid is tucked into the silver napkin ring.
