A nautical summer tablescape

Good morning!

As I write this, it is Father’s Day (Sunday June 20th) and Happy Father’s Day to all the fantastic dads out there!  It is also officially the first day of summer.  My favorite season.  Yay!  And there is more good news on the horizon.  Alberta will lift almost all Covid restrictions on July 1st; this corresponds to two weeks after 70% of Albertans have received at least one dose of the vaccine.  This means we can entertain again.  Double yay!!  Our indoor social gathering restrictions have been in place for almost seven months.  That is a very long time not to have family over that do not live with you.

We jumped the gun a bit and celebrated middle son’s birthday yesterday (Saturday).  The justification was that my mom, hubs, myself, and youngest son’s girlfriend, N, have all been fully vaccinated.  As important, the rest of the crew – all five of them – have all had Covid plus one vaccine dose.  We are at no more risk now than we would be two weeks from now.

But on to the table.  I was aiming for a little more masculine feel for middle son and hence, a nautical tablescape.  Let’s start with the dinner plates, shall we?  They were brought in by Pier 1 in 2018, and they are an ironstone plate in a pretty marine blue and creamy white rope and striped pattern.

In the store, Pier 1 had them displayed alongside their Sea Life dish collection.  Both were on clearance.  If you have a zoom feature, you might be able to see that the striped plates were $5.48.  Hmmm.  I took a picture and decided to mull it over.  Doesn’t this photo just conjure up memories?  Loved Pier 1.  Anyway, I went back to have another look about a week later, and they had been marked down to $1.88.  Yes, you read that correctly; I couldn’t believe my eyes either.  It was one of those Ikea moments – remember the commercial where the woman thinks that she got such a good deal that it must have been a mistake?  And she comes running out of the store with her bags yelling at her husband “Start the car, start the car!”  And she jumps in the car and they speed off before the “mistake” can be discovered.  Yeah, it was kind of like that.  In any event, it would have been criminal to leave those pretty plates behind at that price, right?

Once at home, I knew I didn’t want to pair them with the sea life plates (which I’d already succumbed to earlier).  I was looking for something different.  I came across a pinterest post that showed a white plate with an anchor on it and a rope border that looked interesting.  It took me awhile to figure out who made them and then another 18 months to find eight salad plates online.  Turns out they were called Nautical White, and were made by American Atelier.  I’m always somewhat nervous about ordering plates sight unseen.  I worried about whether they would be too white, but they turned out to be a lovely creamy white and a great match for the dinner plates.  Phew.

They were actually a set of four different salad plates.  The anchor (which started the whole affair):

A lighthouse:

A sea bird:

And a sail boat:

The napkins continue with the rope theme and color; I must have picked them up at Pier 1 that summer as well.  I can’t remember where the napkin rings came from – I’ve had them for awhile.  The driftwood charger plates are also from Pier 1, but I managed to resist them until the following summer if I remember correctly.  But I’m so glad I caved and bought them – especially in light of the Pier 1 closure – they will go with many different summer tablescapes.

The flatware has an anchor and some rope detail on the handle.  The brand is Towle and I’m pretty sure they came from Amazon.  I don’t have a lot of flatware but these seemed perfect for the table.

The wine glasses were from the Dollar Tree.  I thought they were a pretty good match and you can’t argue with the price!

And the centerpiece you ask?  Ah, sure.  Gulp.

The centerpiece started with a blue and white striped table runner.  I added a red lantern that I’ve had for years and then some buoys.  The big buoy was from Michaels and I think the other two were from an Etsy shop.

Then things got a little crazy as a ship steering wheel lazy-susan jumped on the table followed by some small lighthouses, a sailboat, and some sailboat salt and pepper shakers.  Yikes!  They all begged to stay and, well, what could I say?  It would have been rude to say no.  But its certainly not an, er, sparse middle of the table…

And the whole table.

With a peek of early morning sun…

And from above.

And that’s all she wrote.  Hope you enjoyed the nautical table!  Wishing everyone a happy and glorious summer!

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