Katie Brown’s Tips for Thanksgiving Decor

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Hi, I’m Katie Brown. Thanks for joining me today, because today I’m going to show you, well, one of my favorite things to do whenever I’m having a party and especially on Thanksgiving.

I love to create a tablescape that makes people go “Wow!” and is super creative and yet made out of kind of humble things that aren’t too expensive, and projects that don’t take too long.
So today we’re going to set a splendid Thanksgiving table. Today, because I feel like it’s kind of Thanksgiving-looking, I’m going to go with some really easy-to-bend copper wire. I’m going to create it like a little pumpkin name tag, and you want to get one piece to start your pumpkin that’s, I don’t know, maybe a foot and a half foot long and it’s really easy, you don’t have to be a sculptor to do this.

It’s just make yourself a round circle, and it can be a little misshapen because what pumpkin isn’t? And then with your two tails, that’s where you’re going to wind it and create your leaf, and your windy stem at the top, and if it gets warped, you can kind of twist it and turn it until you get it just the way you want it. Kind of cockeyed like a pumpkin looks.

And then with the tail, I’m going to take a pencil and wind it around. So you get a little bit of a natural kind of thing out of it, and you’ve got a real abstract little pumpkin there. And then to write your name, I am going to cut off just a green leaf with a little bit of a tail on it, so it looks like it just naturally grew on the top of my pumpkin, and with a paint pen. I’m just going to write the name of my guests.

In this case, it’s my mama, who we call Meg, which If you spell it backwards, it’s Gem, and she will never let you forget that her name is Gem. You could probably use a Sharpie for this or any kind of magic marker you have, and then I’m just going to kind of, oh, so gingerly put that leaf. And I’ve got a quick and easy way to let my mom, Gem, know where to sit. And it’s a little piece of art and it’s a little, little squash, pumpkin, apple, whatever kind of veggie you want. And that’s going to go right on my plate.

You might have some leftover pumpkins from Halloween, or you might walk into any of your grocery stores, which are selling pumpkins right now, and they make a great addition to any tabletop, and they last a lot longer than fresh flowers. You just want to dress them up a little bit. And I am going to do that by using some ribbon.

I’ve picked a color scheme that I think is kind of fun, it’s like orange, pink, and brown. I am using just thumbtacks, you can also use copper nails if you have them or upholstery, but they come in all kinds of great coppers and golds, which is kind of perfect for this project.

And you can choose any color scheme you want, you know, you could stick with all browns. You could do all kinds of maroons and oranges, and you can see that these thumbtacks and copper tacks kind of add a decorative bling to my pumpkin. Fun, right? But I’m not done, because these are going to go on the same table as my name cards I just made. I want to somehow incorporate that copper wire into the design of these pumpkins. And the way I’m going to do that is I’m going to take that pencil again and wrap, kind of make a tail, like a little branch for my pumpkin. And all you’ve got to do is just drive the end of your copper wire, right to the top of your pumpkin. And it looks almost like a natural little, little branch growing off the top of your pumpkin. And you’ll see when I put that on my table, it’s going to tie it in.

I like to do something fun with my silverware rather than just set it. So I think it’s fun to kind of form an X, X marks the spot, and I’m going to again use ribbon because I want to tie this all in. Yes, I am the ribbon lady. I am that person that cannot walk out of a craft store if there’s a bowl or a basket of ribbons that are for sale, I grab them. I grab all kinds of ribbons. I buy fake flowers, yep. I buy them, If they’re on sale, I buy them. Ribbons, I buy them, even if I don’t need the color. Someday I’m going to use it.

And just tie them in an X. I mean, you’ve heard of napkin rings for your napkins. Think of this as kind of a napkin ring for your silverware only It’s a tie. So now I have three kind of festive things to bring to my tabletop. I have my name cards, I have my pumpkins, all dolled up, and I have my X marks the spot. Now I’m going to put it all together and you’re going to see it’s a show-stopping tablescape that is perfect for a fun and funky Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving from my house to yours.