It’s time for one of everyone’s favorite fall events- Thanksgiving! It doesn’t get much better than spending time with your family and eating a huge, home-cooked meal. When you have folks over to eat, your dining room table will be a big part of the day. It’s a good idea to think about how to set a table for Thanksgiving even if you’ve done it before. Here are a few things to think about when it comes to setting a Thanksgiving table.
Setting Your Thanksgiving Table
Before you set any dishes down, you’ll want to be sure that your dining table is prepped. You need one that is big enough for all of your guests to have a spot for their plate and glass and still have enough space for all the food. Make sure that all the chairs that you put around the table match. If you have to add extra chairs that don’t look alike, use chair covers to help make them all match.
Covering the table with a tablecloth can be a good way to dress up a table for Thanksgiving, as it will make things look both elegant and traditional. If you have a table with a nice finish that you don’t want to cover up, you can use a more narrow piece of cloth called a table runner. You can place a table runner along the middle of the table where you’ll be putting all of the serving dishes or you can put a few of them along the surface area where you’ll be putting dinner plates.
How to Place All of Your Dishes & Flatware
Once you have your table surface area and seating ready, you can set down the dishes for your guests. How you set a table for Thanksgiving is going to be different for everyone and depends on what food you are planning to serve. Placemats can be a very nice choice for formal dinners. If you choose to use them, try to pick ones that are within the fall color scheme like orange, brown, or yellow. On top of the placemats or table runners, you can put down the dinner plates. If you’re serving salad or soup then you will want to set down a bowl on top of the plate.
Now you are ready for your flatware. Start by placing forks to the left of the plates. Take the larger dinner fork and place it closest to the plate. The smaller salad fork will be to the left of that fork. If you decide to give each of your guests a bread plate, place it right above the forks, and place an individual butter knife on top of that. On the right side of the plate, set the knife with its edge facing toward the plate. After that, set the spoon. Water and wine glasses should go above the knife. Napkins can go to the left of the forks or on top of the plate depending on how much table space you have. Dress up your napkins with nice western napkin rings to add an extra bit of holiday decoration to your place settings.
Get Festive With Your Rustic Decor & Accessories
Once you have a large enough table and the guests have their plates, you can start to have fun with decorations! How you set the table for Thanksgiving is going to be made all the more holiday-like when you start adding the small — but important — details of decorations and accessories. They don’t have to be too fancy or overly done. Add just a few small touches to make the table look different than it usually does and to make everything feel more special.
Having candles on the table can help to provide warm lighting, which can make all the difference when trying to create a feeling of warmth and welcome for your guests. Bringing the outdoors inside your home and making it a part of how you decorate will help to give your table a rustic and seasonal look. You can go about this by adding a few small pumpkins or any type of smaller sized gourds throughout the table setting. The turkey will serve as the most important part of the meal — be sure to use a good and sturdy rustic carving board to serve up the bird to your hungry guests.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Now that you know a little bit more about how to set a table for Thanksgiving, you can go on and share a delicious meal with the people you love. From all of us here at Antèks, we hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving full of good memories.
If you have any more rustic design questions or any western/rustic decor furniture needs, you can always give us a call at 214.528.5567. Sending us an email at info@Antèkshome.com always works too.