Fall Centerpieces: Warm Up Your Autumn Table with a Vintage Dough Bowl
In this post: Fall centerpieces can be a lovely focal point to beautify your tables. Here’s how to add warmth to your autumn table with a vintage dough bowl.⇒
Does anyone get dressed up for Thanksgiving?
In our family, while other occasions bring out our holiday finest, Thanksgiving invites cozy sweaters, jeans and other casual fare. The focus is on family and the feeling is warm and grateful.
So, of course, I like my table decor to reflect this same attitude.
Fall Table Decor
Before I get to the centerpiece at the heart of this tablescape, let’s take a look at the place settings around it. I love to start with my favorite seasonal salad plates, but try to make them look different each time I use them. This time I paired them with animal print dinner plates and placed both atop chargers of mother-of-pearl mosaic.
(See below for resources.)
I’m loving these fabulous rugged linen napkins, edged with fringe and a delicate sheer ruffle. The napkins alone embody my concept, mixing casual with elegance all in one piece. To support the theme of warmth I’ve used gold trim throughout, including these napkin rings encircling the linen.
In addition to gold, I used touches of copper, primarily in the flatware adjacent to the patterned plates. This is the closest that I come to using traditional fall colors, with gold, cream and copper imparting that spectrum.
For stemware I used these exquisite gold trimmed goblets, which add a note of “holiday special” to a table that’s otherwise very casual. They’re the pearls you wear with your sweater and jeans!
Fall Centerpieces
Which brings us to the star of this table, the bountiful dough bowl that’s brimming with flowers.
Perhaps you’ve seen me do this in the past with spring blooms, but fall centerpieces require a very different palette. I used wheat stalks and mums, hydrangeas and baby boos. But I always need to add in a dash of pink, too.
Here I went with coral pink roses to add that feminine twist that’s emblematic of my style.
The underpinning is a ruffled linen tablecloth, creamy and laundered for a foundation of relaxed attitude. I love uncovered windows for bright crisp fall lighting and my vintage crystal chandy is the cherry on top. (I will be lowering it shortly, as it’s about 8” too high.)
Finally, I draped seeded eucalyptus as a table runner and interspersed candlesticks in vintage brass.
Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday, family centered and celebrating gratitude. These values warrant a warm and lovely setting, but relaxed and casual is the order of the day. The day is best spent in the company of loved ones and my table is set to welcome them home!
Resource Guide
To get the look, click on the items below for direct links to the products. Where actual items were no longer available, I’ve provided similar options. If an item is out of stock but may be restocked, I left it on the list.
(This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.)
SUBSCRIBE AND GET my free guide:
“20 Ways to Update Your Home for Your Changing Lifestyle”!
Please enjoy my friends’ Thanksgiving tables below, as well!
The Shops
Have you visited the Designthusiasm shops? Click below to shop my favorites, my home by room, and my Amazon shop. Be sure to follow me on Instagram for quick updates.
Lory…it’s exquisite my friend! I especially love the dough bowl centerpiece so artfully arranged. Thanks for organizing us again and thinking of you. xo
Thanks so much, Janet! It’s kind of nice to start looking at the pretty again, so I’m about to make the rounds through the tour… 🙂
Lory, everything is just so stunning! I love you mixed things up…super cozy and elegant!
Thank you, Holliday!!
Lory, finally someone got the placement of the flatware “right.” Since most folks are right handed it makes sense to have the utensils on that side.
Your casual is my elegant – very, very gorgeous!
Lol, thanks Sharon! You have no idea how much flak I get for doing that from some etiquette sticklers… 😉 But I figure, my table, my rules! Glad you like it!!
Loved your tablescape today. Lovely and the dough bowl arrangement was so pretty. I also likthe charger plates. Jean
Thanks for the sweet words, Jean!
It’s gorgeous, Lory! Love the pairing of the salad plates with the animal print plates and mosaic chargers. Unique and pretty!
Thank you so much, Jennifer!!
I adore this table Lory. I’ve had my eye on those pumpkin plates for awhile and now I’m thinking I might have to get them! And they look amazing with the leopard – love it! The mix of the casual dough bowl and the very dressy gold is wonderful.
Thanks for organizing and amazing tour and for letting me be a part! And happy fall to you my friend:)
Sheila
xo
So beautiful Lory! I love how you mix traditional elements with not so traditional colors. The effect is magical! I’ve been praying for you! xo
Your china is beautiful and I love the splash of pink in the centerpiece!
Your tables are always so inspiring, Lory, I especially love that beautiful gold stemware! Thank you for organizing this fabulous tour! xo
Hi Lory,
We must be a strange bunch as our family dresses up for this season. Even though it is just the 5 of us ( 7 if you count the dogs that watch the fun ) we find that taking care to dress up brings appreciate to ourselves as well as those that prepared the meal.
When I was young child up to a teen, my family did most the traveling and the stress level was high. Perhaps even on both sides? Now as my husband and I have a family we like to keep it simple during any holiday season as no one comes to our house and we go into hermit mode. ;o)
Lory what an exquisite table setting! I adore the doughbowl cneterpiece and am obsessed with the leopard plates! Thank you so much for including us in this beautiful series with such an amazing group, we really appreciate it!
xo
Kim & Lacey
Such a beautiful tablescape, Lory. Thanks for organizing another wonderful tour!
Hugs, Jamie
What is the size of your dough bowl. I’ve been shopping since I saw yours. Beautiful
Ah, just seeing this comment now. I actually think mine is a bit too large and have been thinking of looking for a smaller one. Mine is 38” long.
I am decorating a house built in the early 1900’s for a tour of homes and just can’t decide how I want to go with the dining room table. The house is not fancy but very well preserved and I want the guests who tour to leave with a sence of feeling they have stepped back in time and would like to stay in that era. I love the dough bowl and the casual placement of the flowers. Your color palete is so soothing and luxurious and I like that it is not just golds and yellows!! Thanks for the inspiration….now I have to dig out my wooden cheese press for a container since I don’t have a large dough bowl!! XOXO