There’s still plenty of summer sunshine and blue skies ahead, so why not create a bright and cheerful summer tablescape to celebrate the season?

 

Today I am joining my friend Cindy of County Road 407 and several blogging friends for the July Pinterest Challenge! This month’s challenge theme is  “Summer Tablescapes” and it’s full of gorgeous inspiration for creating tablescapes indoors or out.  If you are coming over from Cindy’s gorgeous home at DIY Beautify, I know you loved her Strawberry Table for Two  as much as I did! You will find the links to all of the other amazing tablescapes on today’s challenge at the end of this post.

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Elements of a Summer Tablescape

Our beautiful inspiration Outdoor Table Decor photo this month comes from Hello Hayley. Isn’t it so fresh, rustic, and pretty?

Let’s breakdown her tablescape which is stunning in it’s simplicity!

• White bowls and saucers
• Wicker/Rattan/Jute Placemats
• Simple “centerpiece” of a grouping of various green plants in white pottery arranged in a single line down the center of the table
• Lemons? Wait, um, no lemons. Blue transferware, napkins, napkin rings and topiaires? None of that either. Candles??? Ooops!

 

Okay… so my tablescape looks pretty much nothing like the inspo photo… However, Cindy said we could do any kind of summer tablecape indoors or out. So here’s what I am calling my “Blue Skies- Breezy-Easy-Lemon-Squeezy” cheerful summer tablescape tablescape with vintage blue and white transfeware, and some some of my new dining room instead!  Take a good look at this photo, especially the area in the corner around the china cabinet… 

For reference, here is the very same corner view when we first stepped foot the kitchen during an estate sale almost two years ago…

 

Would you have envisioned how my shabby antique china cabinet, creamy white paneled walls, green velvet curtains, rustic French farmhouse plank and beam ceiling and a blingy chandelier would transfrom this space… or that a 7 foot farm table would even have fit here? As you can see, our current dining room used to be the very dingy, outdated kitchen, but we knew right away it had potential! It’s fun to scroll back up and compare the drastic changes in this almost unrecognizable space!  *Note the edge of where the refrigerator used to be is where the huge custom built in cabinetry is now (pictured below.)

 

(Photo from last fall just after moving in. Almost a full year of work had already been done by that point!)

If you are new here or haven’t visited in some time, you might not know that we moved from the yellow brick home into our historic 1926 red brick American Foursquare in September of 2023 (purchased and began reno in Nov. 2022.) We have spent nearly every day working on some kind of project or renovation, and honestly decorating has been farther down on the list until this summer when things really started coming together.

 

Here is how the dining room looks currently (just a phone pic looking in from the kitchen.) I am waiting on the plantation shutters for the bottom 3/4 of the windows and I might switch this rug to another room and use something more neutral here. I still have a bit more accessorizing and styling to do, but other than that this room is nearly FINISHED  (for now!) There is a doorless vintage-pantry-underway just to the left of the built in, but that is another post for another day!

 

Built in cabinetry wall before…

 

…and after!!!!!!

Knowing that this tablescape hop was coming up, my sweet husband took a break from the master bathroom reno and sunroom and really worked hard to put the finishing touches on our dining room so I could share a few additional photos for today’s post. I couldn’t create this beautiful home without him! We finally installed the vintage style hardware  on the built in china cabinet/hutch this week and I painted the cremone bolts using rub and buff to match. I LOVE how it all turned out!  

 

Now, back to the Cheerful Summer Tablecape!

 

Our kitchen and dining room is semi-open concept, so I wanted to continue the kitchen lemons and herbs summer accents I shared in my styled summer basket tray last week into the dining room. Did you notice my new Ralph Lauren lamp that I scored for TWENTY DOLLARS at a yard sale this weekend?  Typically that’s a little steep price for me to pay at a yard sale, but not for THAT lamp! Read more about the lamp in my recent round up post of summer thrifted treasures.

 

 

 

 

 

Normally I try to really mimic the inspiration photo for every Pinterest challenge, but I already had this very basic tablescape set for summer with vintage blue and white transferware, jute placemats and a doughbowl of lemons centerpiece, so instead of stressing and changing everything to be more similar to the challenge photo, I decided to “go with it.” I hope you don’t mind!

 

 

If you are a long time reader and friend you are more accustomed to seeing the wooden planks on our farm table uncovered. However, when we moved here the planks were looking way too scratched and rustic and clashed a bit with our new French Farmhouse Dining Chairs and the French farmhouse plank and beam ceiling treatment my husband created. I plan to restore the table top planks this fall, but I actually have been loving the elegant look of using a table cloth for a change.

 

Yellow and blue is a classic summer combo, but I have actually rarely used these two colors together in my interior decorating. After seeing how it brightens up the dining room (especially with my beloved green accents) I now understand why this color combination is timeless. Speaking of green, I am ob-sessed with the olive green velvet curtains I scored on Prime Day!

 

Nemia Olive Green Velvet Curtains

 

 Similarly to the challenge photo, I did use greenery, natural placemats, rustic touches and a farm table (underneath the tablecloth!) I added a little more detail using candles, a rustic French stripe burlap runner, yellow napkins and hyacinth basket weave napkin rings, but still kept things pretty basic and natural with the lemons, greenery, placemats, burlap chargers and blue transferware plates and saucers. 

STYLE TIP: Using natural decorative elements and lots of various textures mixed in a room with more sophisticated vintage brass accessories, elegant antiques or artwork helps makes the space feel more casual, welcoming and modernized. 

 

Similar Jute Placemats

 

Similar  French Stripe BurlapTable Runner

 

 

“New to me” thrifted items include a pair of shabby-French looking rusty metal candlesticks, faux preserved boxwood topiaries and a set of 6 Delft-style hand painted tiles that are repurposed as coasters.

 

Similar Preserved Boxwood Topiaries

 

 

I created a super simple centerpiece, using my smaller dough bowl filled with thrifted faux lemons, faux herbs and a strand of Japanese boxwood battery-operated light garland. 

 

 

 

The center cloche covers my favorite Lightli battery-operated pillar candle sitting with a gorgeous, vintage thrifted blue and white saucer underneath. I wanted to use a low  dough bowl centerpiece since there is a taller orchid arrangement directly across from the table on the china cabinet built in.

 

Similar Dough Bowl

 

Simlar Cloche

 

 

 

 

 

I thrifted the two faux preserved boxwood topiaries at a consignment shop a couple of weeks ago and have been loving them on the table. I elevated each topiary with a stack of vintage ironstone and blue and white transferware sauces. I definitely can see using them on the table year round, simply changing out the saucers seasonally and dressing them up with festive holiday ribbons.

 

 

I found a set of 6 bright yellow napkins on sale at World Market last week, and I knew they would be perfect for my lemony tablescape. They hyacinth weaved napkin rings have a designer look, but were actually purchased years ago at a local dollar store.

 

What’s the Dish???

  I don’t have a matching set of 6 blue transferware plates, so I mix and match two similar patterns. This is Staffordshire “The Stream”

 

This pattern was also mixed in with the thrifted Staffordshire stack of dishes which isn’t exact the same, but so similar that I didn’t really catch it until I got home and started cleaning the plates. It is by Myott-Meakin, but I don’t know the name of the pattern. Do you?

 

Similar Spode Blue Italian Transferware Dishes

 

 

If you look closely you will see that I am only use four green glasses, because that’s all I have at the moment. At the yellow brick home I usually only created a tablescape for four, but here we purchased 6 matching chairs for the farm table so I have started setting a table for six.

 

 

Green Wine Glasses Set of 6

 

I am going to keep my eyes out while thrifting for some pretty green vintage goblets or maybe new ones like the ones pictured above on Amazon. 

 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed my “blue skies-breezy, easy-lemon-squeezy”cheerful summer tablescape, as well as some views around our new dining room as it progresses toward the finish line! If you enjoyed seeing the dining room and want to follow for more updates as we make this old house a home, be sure to subscribe by email for my newsletter. I love new friends!

Next up on today’s challenge Carol of Bluesky at Home, is so be sure to head on over to check out how she created a gorgeous summer outdoor tablescape. Don’t forget to visit all of the other blogs on today’s challenge via the links below.

Thanks for visiting, and happy summer tablescaping!

Amber

 

You might also enjoy:

Thrifted Ralph Lauren Lamp and Favorite Summer Junkin’ Finds Round Up