When I think summer tablescapes, I think all soft, white and pastel to beat the heat. Then I look at the bright pink bougainvillea in my balcony and the flaming red Gulmohar on the road outside, and my brain does a U-turn. Nature is bursting with colour in the summers.. shouldn’t we too? So I’ve finally come to the conclusion, that depending on my mood, summer decor can be either of the 2.

Which is why we have 2 summer tablescapes over here today. The first for when the heat is causing complete bheja fry and you need soft and sweet to keep your sanity. The second for when you’re feeling as luminous as the sun itself and you want bright and cheerful to reflect that. Let’s get straight to it!

2 Spectacular Summer Tablescapes:

(1) Pretty in Pink:

The first of our 2 summer tablescapes is this bit of prettiness. It was completely inspired by a super hot day and I intended to go full white on this one. Except that when I went to get the flowers, the florist didn’t have any in white. I got myself these pale pink roses instead. And I am so glad I did because I love how it’s turned out!

I started with a white table cloth. (And let me tell you a secret… I usually use bedcovers as table cloths because of the odd size of my table.) Do you remember our post on napkin folding ideas? I used the easiest and my most favourite idea from that post. I just rolled up the napkin, tied it with some pink ribbon and slid the rose inside it.

Quite easy, right? But looks so, so pretty!

I lined up small wooden placemats in a row to make a runner down the centre of the table. And though this looks like a really complicated floral arrangement, it was really easy to do.

I placed the candle stand with the pink pillar candle right at the centre of the runner. Then I took 6 regular water glasses and put 2 roses and that pretty white filler in each glass. I arranged these in a line along the central runner.

Then I searched my other glassware for glasses of different shapes and heights and picked a few at random.

I turned these upside down, rolled up a bit of cello tape and stuck it to the bottom of each glass. To each of these, I stuck a white paper doily to form a base for the tea lights. I placed the tea lights on top of the doilies and my tea lights were ready.

To add some substance to the runner, I added greens and silver decorative flowers to it, and my table setting was done.

It is soft, sweet, pretty and pink… to make your heart melt no matter what the temperature!

In case you want to see how we step by step, watch this little video.

(2) A Burst of Colour:

The second of our spectacular summer tablescapes is this bright and colourful table. Those of you who have seen Em’s Living Room will remember that we did this table setting for her photo shoot.

I don’t have quarter plates with this set of white dinner plates, so we used these pretty pink quarter plates to go with it. The pink was going beautifully with the pink stripes in the glasses. Also, since both the plates are of the same brand, they have the same cutwork on the border, which makes them feel like a set even though they are not. Here we simply placed the napkin, as is, between the 2 plates.

That bright blue runner was what brought this whole tablescape together. With the vivid pink and purple on it, it was just inviting us to add more colour. Which we did with those sunny yellow flowers. Again, we used regular water glasses as vases. Since these glasses are really small, the flowers weren’t holding upright, but falling over the edges. We used play dough at the bottom of each glass to stick the stems in so that they would stand properly.

We added more colour with those red and green bowls, and string lights never hurt any decor situation!

That’s it.. our burst of colour summer tablescape is ready!

If you look carefully, you’ll notice that we’ve used the same table mats, dinner plates and napkins in both the tablescapes. Shows how you can use the same things in so many different ways to get such widely different looks!

Also, we’ve put together both the summer tablescapes using whatever we could find at home, other than the fresh flowers. In fact, mixing and matching brings about it’s own exciting combinations which you can never achieve by getting a ready ‘set’.

If you’re looking for more inspiration, we have a few more tablescapes ideas here. So go ahead and use your favourite decor items to create your own sparkling summer tablescapes. And don’t forget to share your new ideas with us once you are done! Send them in the comments below so that we can try them too.

Wishing you a bright, happy, lots of friends and sunshine kind of summer!

Until next time,