If your family celebrates Easter, chances are, you’ve got some great childhood memories surrounding this cherished holiday. One of mine? Hunting for Easter eggs. As soon as we got home from Easter Mass we headed over to my dad’s good friend’s house, where I’d join their passel of six girls to scout for eggs while Dad and Mr. Loftin would crack open a beer (unbeknownst to Mrs. Loftin and my mom, who were busy cooking Easter dinner).
Easter is such a time of joy, when we slough off winter, embrace the promise of spring, and feel a bit like a kid again. Most of us don’t want to decorate as elaborately for Easter as we do for Christmas, instead focusing our homage to a few key spots. In the photos above (from my book Entertaining in Style) you can see how I set my Easter table a few years ago to have a sophisticated, yet playful, feel. We used lots of fresh flowers, wheat grass and Easter candy to make the table scene enticing and memorable. In my living room, I pulled together a tableau spotlighting farm eggs.
Check out this wonderful Easter dinner table the design team at Nell Hill’s created. Layered between the wicker placemat and the stack of plates is a faux cabbage leaf. Even when I set a formal table, I like to add an element of surprise, a bit of whimsy that catches guests off guard and makes them smile. These wipe-clean leaves do just the trick.
Every year at market, I find something that lights my heart on fire. This year, it was porcelain Easter-themed table accents. Aren’t these chubby bunny napkin rings the cutest?
One of my favorite ways to top a beautiful place setting is with a seasonal salad plate. These majolica-inspired berry plates are just the thing. While they seem especially appropriate for spring, you could use them year round.
Whether you are entertaining adults or kids, add some table accents that delight, like these individual sets of bunny salt and pepper shakers or the cute-as-a-button bunny egg cups. Both would make perfect take-home gifts for your guests.
Dress up a side table with a playful Easter tableaux. For this display at Nell Hill’s, we started with a base of faux grass then topped it with a round mirror, a placid lake for our industrious Easter bunny to row across on his way to deliver eggs.
Here’s an idea from our design team for your mantel or a bookcase. Create a little forest with potted faux boxwood topiaries. Then, let little rabbit figures frolic below. Miniature scenes like these will captivate the little people in your home, and, quite possibly, more than a few adults.
If you don’t celebrate Easter, but would like a fresh look for spring, here’s another inspiration table from Nell Hill’s. Our centerpiece looks fancy, but is easy to pull off: Fill an assortment of blue and white urns, vases and jars with fresh flowers and march them down the center of your table. Classic blue and white transferware takes on a spring look when topped by faux birds’ nests filled with bird-shaped individual salt and pepper shakers.
When all the other little girls got to wear flouncy pastel dresses to Easter Mass, my mom always dressed me in a tailored khaki number, insisting a well-cut classic was more my style. She was right, of course. But to this day, I have a yearning for pastels at Easter. We used pastel blues and greens in this Easter-inspired mantel display at Nell Hill’s. Arranging flowers is easy when you have a set of small-mouthed vases like these cuties, in the softest of robin’s egg blue. Find three different kinds of flowers, insert a bloom or two in each vase, and you’ve got a killer spring mantel in minutes.
If Dan and I try to sneak anything sugary to our granddaughter, we get the stinky eye from our daughter. So we’re trying to be good grandparents (and stay out of hot water) by giving Maeve other kinds of treats for the holidays, such as seasonal collectibles she can save and enjoy for years to come. I’m a big fan of the nostalgic hand-painted resin and papier mache pieces created by Bethany Lowe that we’re carrying at Nell Hill’s because they make a great gift for young and old alike.
Next Week … We’re so excited about our special Spring Tabletop Event at Nell Hill’s April 14-15. We’ll give you a little preview by spotlighting a few of the beautiful table designs that await you.