Time got away on me a little bit and although we had our Valentine’s table setting ready to go, I couldn’t write up the post in time. We figure it’s better late than never, so happy belated Valentine’s Day. For those of you who are family and friends you may remember the beautiful pink tablecloth we used for last years setting. It is still one of our favourites, and we plan to share it in a post one day. It was very popular, so we had a lot to live up to, but we also wanted this year’s setting to have a different feel to it. So, we went with the bold colour combination of red, black, and white.
Like we have said in previous posts for our table settings we always have one item that we use as a starting point for our design. Once again, the setting revolved around a fantastic vintage tablecloth. Another of Mom’s thrifting finds she knew this tablecloth with a cabbage rose needle point pattern in red and black would make for a perfect Valentine’s Day table setting, and she was right.
Along with a beautiful pattern, we love a tablecloth that has a medallion in the centre. It accents any centrepiece we come up with and in this setting added depth to our rather simple one. In January we set the table to see what we had to go with our tablecloth. Mom knew she wanted to use the bright red chargers and our white Corelle dinnerware, so we laid it all out trying to determine what we would put in the centre. Red roses were a must, but we couldn’t figure out which of our vases to use. Mom’s crystal, and cut-glass vases were too tall, and the silver ones she has were just a little too formal. So before one of her thrifting trips she asked, what kind of vase do you think we need? And we both agreed something in white would be best.
Over the years, if I need something or want something I just say to my mom, I need this. I just put it out there and sure enough, Mom is always able to find it while thrifting. Just like many times before mom returned with a vintage American milk glass vase with cabbage roses. In the weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day, she also found a few more milk glass pieces that she liked. We knew that amongst all the pieces she had one of them would work. Next, we needed the roses, so my father went out that weekend and grabbed a dozen red roses, and a dozen white roses.
What you may not know about Mom is that she likes to cut any flowers she gets super short, she loves low vases that allow us to see each other across the table. So much so, I enjoy razzing her a bit about it. This time she surprised me by not wanting to cut down her roses too short as she wanted them to last longer. This presented us with a bit of a problem as the vase with the cabbage roses was rather short. Luckily though, mom had found three milk glass vases perfect for a rose a piece. We placed those on a milk glass tray, and we had ourselves a centre piece. Two Chalet swan votives with cinnamon hearts surrounding a white candle finished it off nicely.
In another one of mom’s timely thrifting finds she found clear table napkin rings with a white rose design. She knew immediately that they would show up fantastically on our black table napkins. For our cutlery we chose a simple vintage set called “My Rose” by Oneida. Last, but not least, we added vintage French Luminarc wine glasses in Ruby Red.
Our table setting posts are one of our favourites to do. They give Mom an outlet for her creativity, and she can share the beautiful items she collects and enjoys so much. We hope you have enjoyed this setting as much as we did. Stay tuned for our next one as we will be posting a Family Day table setting sometime this week!
PS. We are still enjoying those roses, Mom was able to get most of them to last all week. She is right, they are really cute short.
