Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is the time of the year where it's cold, possibly rainy, the leaves are on the ground and beautiful colors, a time to give thanks for all that you and loved ones have, but it's also one of those holidays where you serve a feast at your table!

Setting a dining table is something I look forward to when I have a home and cook my first Thanksgiving meal. But how do you set the table to not have clutter on the table if you're trying to put food on the table too!??  A lot of the settings I've seen on websites and in magazines seem to have the food kept elsewhere so not take away from their design and setup.

You can set up your table with leaves, Thanksgiving themed decor, branches, nature themed items, or just go with the colors of Thanksgiving and fall.  Oranges, browns, dark greens are all beautiful together.  Even if you just focus on the colors, you'll still be able to bring the Thanksgiving feel to your table!

You can take these colors as your inspiration for a brighter table!

Pumpkins aren't just for Halloween!  The small pumpkins could be used to decoration, to put on top of the plates, or make a slit in the top of them for name cards!

I liked the idea of having pictures of loved ones as the centerpiece, and the fresh pair with the pin in it for the name card holder.

Creative name card holders can really bring your table together and as you can see, the possibilities are endless!!

The name card holders at a table are what your guests see when they first sit down so they are vital to coordinating with your table.  When they first come in, they will look at your table, but when they're sitting at the table for the big feast, they'll have more time for look at every detail!!

ENJOY AND GIVE THANKS!

Dining By Design 2011

These white, glossy, 'toned' chairs at the Room Service table greeted guests!

This year I got a ticket to the Table Hop at DIFFA's Dining By Design 2011.  Yes.  It's true.  Last year was the first year I'd been, well I volunteered so I didn't get to see much.  This post will be long, but you'll love it!

From 6-10pm, the San Francisco Design Center is full of amazing dining rooms, unique table settings, delicious food, drinks, a silent auction, a DJ, and a ton of designers, architects, students, interns, clients, design teams, etc.

I showed up by myself at first, caught up with some old classmates, checked out the tables and talked to a couple designers to find out their inspiration and how they accomplished their design.  When my boss came, we went around again, spoke with some designers and checked out the tables.

While on the 3rd floor, we crossed paths with Claudia Juestel and I talked to her about her blog and mentioned my design blog.  Last semester she spoke to our class at Mavelous and told us what to expect, which really woke me up!  After her advice, I got magazine subscriptions, read blogs and got a (GREAT!) internship. I loved talking to everyone and I can't wait for the next event!

Enjoy these one of a kind works of art!

Claudia took me over to this table later in the night and told me that the designer (AA Silverstein) designed every thing in this dining room setup with the exception of the abalone shells.  Absolutely amazing.

Gary Hutton, a crystal inspired table.  The outer structure is shaped like the crystals on the table.

Gensler's table.  Breathtaking as with anything they do.  My friend Michelle Heinemann was on the design team for this project.  They came on Wednesday and wrapped all the colored ribbon you see themselves!  It turned out amazing and probably the most eye popping table!

Applegate Tran Interiors.  LOVED the yellow popping against the black and white.  The dining table is made of Corian and they filled the middle with water and duckies :)  A playful twist in the white and black dining room.

School of Interior Architecture and Design (hosted by Academy of Art).  Those white lines aren't a glare coming from my camera, those are strings that the students put up!  Each string comes out of the hole in the back, goes against the back wall and continues until it reaches the edge.  Not a flaw at all!  I saw this being set up and they did less than half of the strings in about 8hrs.  That's dedication!

J. Hettinger Interiors.  Another friend of mine is the design assistant here, Stephanie Yeraka, said they made this chandelier!  I thought it was amazing BEFORE I learned that!

Bashford and Dale Interiors.  During the event, a guy in a lab coat would come out and make the dry ice effect over the table.  It was a great addition.

I took more pictures the day after and the wonderful rising sun (about 1030am) gave me these beautiful shadows.  I love the place settings with the squares from the Periodic Table.  Dedicated to those searching for a cure!

Drinks By Design Communal Tables.  They did three tables, each with a different element theme.  This one was Earth with the flooring all different types of ground covering.  There were plants, these wooden chairs (below), cocoons hanging from above and dragonfly light strings.

Anu Paul Designs.  This table had peacocks on either side (below), themed as a romantic fantasy dream.  In the background you can see the painting on the wall up a hill to a castle.  I loved the peacocks because they have so much rich, beautiful colors that could make any designer weak in the knees.

Pourna USA.  I loved the plate settings at their table.  I'm not sure what you would call them, but I love the decoration on the left of the plates!

Design Collaboration.  They did three tables as well with different themes.  This table was the celebration of Elizabeth Taylor's wedding the in the 1950s.  Below is the teacups that were on this table.

I wish I had this to add to my teacup collection!  So elegant and beautiful.

Hartmann Studios.  I saw the walls being brought in, covered in a red fabric.  A gorgeous, beautiful, luscious red can stop a girl in her tracks!  Especially THIS girl!  Not only did the red flow through to the pomegranate, but they opened up the fruit to show the color of the seeds.  The mellow plant green was the accent, not the vibrant red!  The green was in the stems, the chairs at the end and the napkins.  I think a lot of people were drawn to this table because it was so bold and bright.

The end of a night that I didn't want to end.  Taken from the third floor at the end of the night.

I hope you enjoyed seeing photos as much as I enjoyed being there!  The first 10 minutes were kind of a blur because I was in awe of the view when you walk in.  Anytime I hear about DBD,  I think about those first tables I saw last year, completely byside myself that what I was seeing was real!   It's still sort of unreal to me that I was there, but I'm so grateful to my boss and everyone I came across.  You truly made my night and I can not wait for the next event!

Books, books, books!

One of the things I'm most excited about owning a house, is that I can finally have an amazing bookcase display/library. I love to read and I hate to get rid of amazing books.

I think that color coding book spines is gorgeous, but there are many other ways to beautifully display your books. Don't agree? See below!

The colorful back will make anything you put on those shelves catch the eye!

Most of the bookcase displays shown have white bookcases, but for a darker room or for higher contrast, the dark wood, a black or charcoal color would be a powerful statement!

The charcoal behind makes the clean white pitchers pop out and each curve stands out!

This one takes a different approach by having bold, solid, painted sections of the bookcase with the pages of white showing out.

This bookcase is probably the focal point of them room, but it doesn't overpower the color that the books bring to the room!

Until then, I will stick with my apple green 4.5' tall bookcase with semi-color coordinated book organization. . .