“Key Ingredients”: Tabletop Designs From My Trip to Aiken!

Last week I was the guest speaker at the wonderful ’Antiques in the Heart of Aiken’ event. There was such a great turn out and I very much enjoyed my time there. Therefore I would like to share one of my tabletop designs from the show.

Aiken being such an equestrian community, I was forutnate enough to have the ‘equestrian’ inventory from York Cottage Antiques at my disposal!

Now for the ‘key ingredients’!

First, start with your ‘blank canvas’. In this case, a brown burlap table skirt.

Then, add your china and flatware! I added these fun rattan chargers as well! I fell in love with these Thomas Furnival dinner plates. I looked at every Furnival pattern offered on Replacements Ltd., but was unable to identify this great pattern with its border of leaves and berries. Edged in chocolate, the border color ranges from pink to rust with several shades of green and accents of blue! Endless possibilities….! Of course, Lisa Castles, owner of York Cottage Antiques also had a set of hunt scene salad/dessert plates which coordinated beautifully with the Furnival pieces.

T. Furnival & Sons Established in 1851, occupied two old Cobridge manufactories. For the home trade, they produced ‘patent ironstone’ dinner and other services in various styles of decoration. Among their specialties were dinner services, etc., of Italian design, in plain, white ware, the ornamentation on which was indented from an embossed mould, the lines being as fine and delicate as if cut in by the graver so as to have the appearance of chasing; and the lines being filled with glaze, the surface was still even. Another noticeable feature was the clever combination of transfer-printing, hand-painting, enameling, and gilding, which characterize some of the services.

Stemware is next! For this table I used these darling vintage green fostoria glasses (‘Argus’ pattern) to add a pop of color.

Don’t forget linens! You can get the napkins below from my dear friends at 3 Monkey’s in Aiken. Owners, Kathy and Sallye, generously loaned these berry colored napkins and fun acrylic olive colored napkin rings that make for a great informal option.

The next ‘key ingredient’ is to accessorize! Below you can see a fabulous vintage bell jar similar to the one I used in Aiken. I chose to fill mine with horses favorite treats: apples and carrots!

Now that you have seen the tabletop that I designed in Aiken, here are two ways you can mix in match on your own to achieve this look! The first way is to use this lovely Julie Wear   charger in the ‘Cheval’ pattern, with the Furnival dinner plate and topped with the lovely hunt scene salad plate.

Another layering technique you could try is below. This time, use the Furnival pattern for the charger, the Julie Wear ‘Cheval’ dinner plate with the same hunt scene salad plate. Yes, you can also include the same berry napkins!

Lastly, this variation below could also work beautifully! Try using a William Yeoward chocolate ‘Rosemor’ charger, a Julie Wear ‘Post Parade’ dinner plate, topped with a Julia Wear ‘Cheval’ salad plate.

The two variations I shared with you could be very useful when trying to host a large amount of guests for dinner. You could use every-other place setting for your large party of sixteen instead of trying to acquire sixteen place setting of one pattern.

I hope this has been helpful! And remember, don’t be afraid to mix and match. You will end up with a truly ‘collected tabletop’!

~ Kathryn