Your Thoughts on Dining Table Decor

I have had the hardest time lately trying to figure out what I like on my kitchen and dining room tables.  Over the last year I’ve rotated through all sorts of things that I have in the house.  Runner and no runner.  Candles and no candles.  Flowers and no flowers.  You get the gist.

I definitely don’t love the faux floral arrangement that was here in the kitchen a few years back.  (pic from 2012)

I also don’t know if I love the flowers in the dining room.  This arrangement has been in the attic since Easter.  (this pic was from 2013, however)

I want something more practical for every day in the kitchen because we eat dinner here 5 out of 7 nights and play games here and do homework here at times.  This has been my favorite so far – a simple tray with a few decorative items that can be easily moved off of the table as needed.  These particular items were in place for Whit’s first communion, but I switch them out with candles and flowers and such regularly.  (This tray is current and is from Target. I also use it as a trivet.)

As far as the dining room, I’m at a loss.  Right now I have  just my four white candlesticks and that looks pretty sad.

I’d love to know if you have something pretty and practical that you love on your kitchen table!  Share what you put on your formal dining room table too.  I am quite possibly over thinking this, but the days do get long :-)

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21 thoughts on “Your Thoughts on Dining Table Decor

  1. I change mine all the time too. In the kitchen, I like to have a table runner and a simple thing in the center like a lantern with a candle or a hurricane with a candle. Everything always gets pushed aside when we eat, though. In the dining room, I almost always have a runner with a couple candlesticks and then something in the middle. I will either have some kind of seasonal flower arrangement or a simple piece like a tiered tray stand I have in there now. I like to have at least something or else it feels bare.
    Shelley

  2. My favorite is a large blue and white soup tureen. I can leave the lid on it, fill it with Christmas balls for the holidays, use flowers in florist foam, or even add small plants and moss to it. It’s big enough to make a statement, and I’ve found it to be pretty versatile. I’ve got a large blue and white foot bath, too, that I use the same way.

  3. My kitchen table has a Southern Living at Home tray, a Southern Living at Home napkin holder, a plant, and decorative items that I switch in and out.

  4. When it comes do dining table décor, I tend to be a less is more person. My mother is completely opposite and usually it requires having to move things around in order to set her table.

    I am more partial to table runners and currently I am using a pagoda style lantern with center candle on my dining table. The base is adorned with small gold glittery pumpkins and bittersweet for Fall. I will change the lantern out for Christmas and use gold/silver shiny ornaments around the candle base with greenery and a black/white/gold dot table runner that coordinates.

  5. Similar to Kristin, I have a large blue and white bowl that I swap things out of for my dining room. It is filled with Christmas balls, moss balls, I lined the base with rocks and put some orchid plants in it and when those died it turned into now, which is a grouping of Ballard’s battery operated candles.
    My kitchen table is usually a runner and some decorative votives and maybe a tray.
    I also use a runner on both tables.

  6. My dining room has a monogrammed burlap runner, and a large rectangular wooden lantern with candles. My breakfast room changes seasonally, but right now has a large wooden cutting board, and a bowl holding faux apples. Also, two glass candle vases half filled with popcorn under the candles. Sometimes I use a runner there, and sometimes not – my burlap runner always stays on the dining room table unless we’re actually eating there.

  7. I love your kitchen arrangement as it is now with the Target tray. My kitchen table changes all the time, but my dining table has a runner and a wood dough bowl that I change fillers with the seasons. I also used a soup tourine in the past with candles and liked that as well.

  8. For your dining room, how about a soup tureen or large bowl fill with a couple of faux orchids and then covered with moss? I see nice faux orchids at HomeGoods all the time and I think they are very realistic looking. That way you wouldn’t have to put dirt in it and it would be easy to swap out for something seasonal. You could add a runner and candles on each side. For the kitchen, I like your tray with the flower arrangement and candle. You could add one other seasonal item. The tray makes it easy to move everything out of the way to eat or do homework.

    Right now I have a pumpkin with flowers in it on my table, along with a runner. But most of the time I have a large glass bottle on it and I just switch out different types of branches and greenery throughout the year. Simple and easy.

  9. I love the aesthetic of Ina Garten(and you!) in the kitchen I have real rosemary in white cachepots. Simple, seasonless and fragrant. My dining room table is plain, except for parties and family dinners. Then I use simple flower arrangements. Also, with the holidays approaching amaryllises would be lovely in either setting.

  10. On our kitchen table, we have a tree slice in the center with a white pitcher. I can change out the flowers seasonly (real or faux). Easy to move for dinner. In the dining room, I currently have a table runner with a dough bowl in the center (filled with pumpkins) and lanterns on either side.
    I tend to be a less is more when it comes to centerpieces (except maybe at Christmastime). I like to be able to have places to set food down if necessary and to be able to see my family/guests easily.

  11. For kitchen table, I love my large antique-style dough bowl full of fresh fruit and produce. I think it’s pretty, very convenient to move out of way from kiddos when needed, and makes my kids think to grab a smart snack choice rather than a bad one. ?. For dining room, I have a large pedestal blue and white rectanglular bowl that i change out according to season. Currently there’s a fall arrangement full of pumpkins and flowers. Happy table arrangement hunting!!

  12. I’m a 12th generation Southerner, so believe me I understand the compulsion to adorn every square foot of the house, but I generally do not have anything on my kitchen table; I find it aggravating to constantly have to move it out of the way. If I see an especially pretty bouquet of flowers while I’m out and about, I’ll pick a couple up and arrange them in a jug or pitcher for the kitchen table, and a more formal vase for the dining room; I may add some candles on either side for scale, but that’s about it. I don’t care for table runners or faux flowers. I do decorate for Fall and Christmas, but it’s still pretty much still just fresh flowers and candles. I love your arrangement with the pretty tray ; that would certainly make it easy to whisk out of the way!

  13. After years with kids I realized practical for the kitchen table is a must. I have a large tray/ container (it’s hard to explain) that I fill with seasonal items that is easily removed for dinner/homework. I love the look of a runner but save that for the formal dining table that is only used twice a year :). The dinning table also has a floral arrangement and two large candlesticks…wish I could share pictures!

  14. On my table I actually have a 11×14 frame in which I switch out a seasonal printable (right now I just switched to a Gather/Thankful Thanksgiving version) plus a wallet size side-by-side frame of my boys’ school pictures. And a candle : )

    The frame/printable idea is so easy – I just keep all printables in there behind each other and switch out as the mood strikes!

  15. For the longest time, I’d have a vase of fresh flowers on the dining room table. These days, my youngest daughter does her homework there, and I work through dinnertime 3 days a week. The last thing my husband wants to do is have to move tchotchkes off the table for dinner, so I’ve just been leaving it bare. I’ll add an arrangement if we have people over for dinner or something, but other than that, I just make sure it’s nice and polished! (I took our kitchen table out years ago. Our layout is so bizarre- the kitchen is an ‘L’ shape – with the living room off the “top of the L” and the dining room off the “short part of the L”. The kitchen table area is at the “corner of the L”, and it was just in the way. I ended up getting a cute cabinet and flanked it with two antique queen anne dining chairs. It’s such a nice spot for someone to sit while I’m cooking, or even to sit and go over school papers, etc. while I’m getting other things done. A little unconventional, but it works way better for us than a kitchen table!

  16. I have a chinoiserie planter on my dining room table that I like to fill with those huge $12 orchids from Trader Joe’s. They’re pretty low maintenance and inexpensive enough to replace if need be.

  17. We use the kitchen table everyday pretty much for the same things you mentioned in your post. I have no centerpiece in the kitchen table; I got tired of having to move the centerpiece no matter how simple it just got old :) However, in the dining room I have a chinoiserie bowl with waterford candlesticks and a table runner.

  18. I found a {huge!} white vase from TJ Maxx and filled it with faux flower sprigs from Hobby Lobby for Spring & Summer on our dining room table. For Fall, I fill an antique produce wooden box {from my grandparents!} with pumpkins and faux flowers and for Christmas, it’s a clear vase full of ornaments. So easy. I also love striped Ana Candles on the dining room table too! They’re the best!!! xoxo

    http://sandimcclain.blogspot.com/search/label/home%20sweet%20home?updated-max=2017-05-04T07:34:00-07:00&max-results=20&start=3&by-date=false

  19. I think what you have done with the tray is wonderful The elements tie the room together, but can be moved quickly. I adore runners, they add to any grouping. I think you can shop your lovely home to make a tablescape for the dining room. Your current work is lovely, just add the runner. You may want to do a fall scape. I set my fall grouping in mid-September, and add elements for the holidays like Halloween. Remove something, add something, until Thanksgiving.
    Lanterns are wonderful with fillers or your blue and white jars, or I use various candleholders in metals, glass, or wood. I believe a key is height variation. Cake stands work beautifully for elevating a pumpkin or turkey. Add grapes, a few silk fall leaves, and amazing!
    You have an eye, I am sure you will dream up something enchanting to the heart.

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