I know I promised you Part II of the train table makeover story! But I’ve been craving some Spring in my life lately, so I am taking a quick break from house and home projects to show you a lovely Spring tablescape that you can pull together really quickly and using mostly things you can find around your house!

Don’t believe me? In just an afternoon and using these items…

  1. Dried flowers (from Michaels, on sale!)
  2. Easter/Spring accents (the white bunnies are from the Dollar Spot at Target and the green bunnies are from Pier One).
  3. Coordinating colored/patterned cardstock
  4. Ribbon
  5. Neutral, simple fabric
  6. Burlap

…you can take your plane, everyday table to a fresh Spring scene!

The key to pulling together a tablescape that works well together is using a single color with lots of other neutrals. In my case, I paired a citron-y green with white and burlap. I picked the green after taking a quick inventory of what I had around the house (key to keeping this low-cost or even free)! Because I had the green plates AND the green ribbon AND the green napkins, and then fell in love with the green flowers at Michaels, I knew it was the perfect direction to go for my table. With the addition of some colored card stock and a few Easter accents, I was off and running!

I started my tablescape by placing down two of my brand new easy-swap ribbon runners. Want to make some of your own? They are SUPER simple, and I am featuring the tutorial over at Positively Splendid today. Be sure to pop on over, check out the tutorial, and say HI to Amy while you’re there!

Then, I started to add some layers for interest. I started with a stretch of burlap.

I simply cut some burlap (from my stash) the same length as my white runner and then a few inches skinner. I frayed all four sides by just pulling off a few strands in each direction!

Then came more layers! I made simple “placemats” by just laying down 12×12 sheets of polka dot glitter cardstock. I then cut out a flower image (using my cricut) from white cardstock, and added that on top of each placemat. Lastly, I added my lemongrass fiesta plates for a pop!

Next, I came up with this super cute napkin ensemble to place on top!

I started with my two-sided, ric-rac-edged napkins from two Thanksgivings ago. Even if you don’t have any two-sided cloth napkins, you could easily do this same thing with two colors of paper napkins.

Start with your napkin opened up in a square, and then fold one corner over to the other on diagonal. To get the color to show through once its rolled, don’t match up your corners but take the top corner a few inches beyond the bottom corner (I hope that makes sense!). Now, start rolling the napkin, relatively tightly. The fold should be to your left and the open points to your right.

Keep rolling the entire napkin, and you should see a neat alternating pattern form! Make some quick cute napkin rings, and place on top to secure the whole bundle!

Oh – wait! Did I say make some napkins rings? I sure did! These little flower napkin rings (these could totally pass as shamrocks for St. Patrick’s Day too!), will take you just a few minutes.

Start with a 1″x6″ strip of cardstock and two 2.75″ 8-petaled flower cutouts (I used my cricut to cut them out).

Fold your flower in half and crease. Open it up, fold it in half the other direction and crease. Open it up again. Using the creases, pinch the flower as seen in the bottom right photo.

Repeat with the other paper flower. You should now have two flowers like this:

Now, layer one flower on to the other. BUT…don’t line them up perfectly; instead, off-set the top flower by one petal rotation to the right. Secure the top petal to the bottom with hot glue.

The last step is to attach the paper strip as a “ring” to the bottom of the flower using hot glue.

Either for St. Patty’s Day, an Easter Brunch or Spring Fling, these napkins are fun, fresh and festive!

With my place-settings mostly done, I turned to some simple table decorations, starting with my oh-so–favorite trick of making chic dried flower arrangements!

I started by placing some styrofoam blocks (from the Dollar Store) into some clear glass planters that I have in my collection. I then plucked the “blooms” off my dried flower stems and inserted them right into the foam. I worked all the way down the foam block until I had a nice, full display.

But wait! My containers are clear and you can see my ugly Styrofoam! My favorite go-to trick (for fake flower arrangements only!) is to insert a ring of cardstock cut to the same height as my vase!

Nice and chic, and nobody is the wiser what’s in the vase OR behind the cardstock 🙂

My last step was to “fill” up the rest of the table with some simple white and green accents in the form of some bunnies and white and mirrored globes.

To keep things casual and simple, I loaded all the silverware into mis-matched mason jars, and stuck the two furry bunnies into some Epsom salts. All the jars were placed on a clear cake stand to give it some prominence.

My last step was to remove all of our bright blue chair covers. Not only did I not want to bright blue to compete with the green, but the light-colored chairs had a freshness and formality that complimented the table well!

And there you have it – a table all ready for Spring entertaining without breaking the budget!

Phew – that is quite the post 🙂 Hope you found a few bits in there that you can use for your own holiday decorating. I’ve got a few things finishing up this week/weekend, so I am going to take the next few days off to get those wrapped up. I’l be back Monday with the wrap up of the Train Table project! See you then!!

Megan

See You Soon!
Megan