A summer coastal tablescape in aqua, ivory, and gold

Good morning!

I hope everyone is doing well out there.  Its hard to believe that we are almost to the end of July already!  It was time for a summer tablescape – one that reminds me of the beach or the ocean, or any body of water, really – its been quite hot here lately.  But it was not a table that came together easily I must admit even though I had the whole table planned out in my head.  Or so I thought.

It all started with this little beaded table topper that I tripped across on Amazon one day.  I loved the colors in the picture and thought it might go with my favorite turquoise crackle plates that you can see here.  It did not, unfortunately, and that marked the beginning of my challenges.  Honestly, I should have just returned the topper right then and there.

Okay I thought, I have white seashell plates and I can use them.  Of course then I wouldn’t be able to use my ivory shell napkins or jellyfish napkin rings or ivory chargers that I had planned on…  But I was pretty sure I could come with some alternatives.

The chargers were my next challenge.  I decided that the plates would look nice on contrasting chargers that picked up the turquoise/aqua color in the table topper.  I thought I would just spray paint some dollar store chargers; I first checked Amazon for their selection of spray paint.  Wow – super expensive and not much selection.  At Michaels there wasn’t much of a selection either and I chose the one that I though would go best.  Back at home – this is not the best photo, but nope it clearly wouldn’t work.  I’m pretty sure I can salvage these though.

With my options narrowing, I went online searching for chargers.  I was now determined to set this table lol.  I found some chargers that looked like a good match and they were relatively inexpensive and I ordered them.  I was so excited to open them the day they arrived but it was a pretty jiggly package – you know, the one where your heart kind of sinks – because it doesn’t sound normal  Yup, sadly all six were broken.  It almost looked like they had been dropped or something.

I called the company and they were most sympathetic and refunded me my money including the shipping and asked that I put all the broken chargers back in the box they came in and Fedex would stop by to pick them up.  Strange request, but Fedex actually did come by.

In the meantime, I ordered a second set that arrived about 10 days later.  You probably know where this is going and yes, the second order arrived; one was broken, one was cracked, and the other four were okay.  I called customer service again; they were not as sympathetic this time and offered either a refund for the two broken chargers ($6.00) or a full store credit for the cost of the items; the latter is the one I chose.  No shipping cost reimbursement though.  So my current dilemma is whether I order yet another set with the credit and pay the shipping again or lose the credit.  The chargers aren’t very well wrapped and the bubble wrap is very thin.  I feel like if I ordered another set, some would be broken too.  On the other hand, four is fine for tablescaping, but not enough for actual entertaining.  What would you do?

Addendum:  I did go ahead and order another set of chargers and – stroke of luck – all six arrived in mint condition.  I now have 10 of the chargers lol.

But to the table and to the only thing I could do which was set it for four.

Here is the place setting.

The dishware is a coastal set from Pottery Barn a number of years ago.  There is a clam salad plate

and the seashells dinner plate.

The stemware was Bohemian crystal water goblets and some gold metallic wine glasses.

The metallic pattern on the wine glasses was originally intended to be stars in a galaxy.  On this tablescape, they are starfish on a beach of sand and pebbles.

I came across these sweet gold-tipped seashell wine charms in HomeSense quite by accident as I was waiting in line to pay for something else.

The centerpiece started with this shell vase.  It can be used either as a vase or a pillar holder.   I used it as a vase this time to hold the beautiful dahlias and chrysanthemums (I think) that I found in Michaels.  I don’t know if they come in this color in nature, but they were a perfect match for the shells on the vase.

And I just added two small gold taper holders on either side as I didn’t want to cover up all the pretty beaded designs.

There are seahorses on each end of the topper.  You can sort of see one here.

A couple more pictures of the table…

Its interesting that in some of the pics with the early morning sunlight (like these two) the aqua color is more turquoise, at least to my eyes….

Thanks for visiting and I hope everyone is having a great summer!

Resources:

Dishware and napkin rings:  Pottery Barn several years ago used here

Napkins: Old Pier 1

Water goblets and shell vase: HomeSense

Wine glasses:  Anthropologie several years ago

Table topper and gold taper holders:  Amazon

Chargers: Tableclothfactory (the same as efavormart, I believe)

Please feel free to leave a comment – they are most welcome and much appreciated.  You can also subscribe by scrolling down and clicking the “notify me of new posts” box.  Your email will never be shared.

Sharing with between naps on the porch.