I’m the LEAST DIY kind of person so you know if I’m doing a DIY it better be two things. Easy and inexpensive. That’s exactly what this gorgeous tablescape is. A gorgeous fall and holiday table for all your entertaining needs this season. Just a few things you’ll need to recreate this stunning buffet and tablescape.
The great part about this tablescape is that it will last. The flowers won’t, but the pumpkins and eucalyptus can last for a few weeks if you take care of them. Here’s what you need to create my DIY pumpkin tablescape for the upcoming holidays.
DIY Pumpkin And Fall Harvest Holiday Table
To start our DIY pumpkin and fall harvest table, let’s begin with the little DIY you’ll need to do before we get into the table. To create your cute pumpkins and metallic eucalyptus, here’s what you’ll need.
What You Need
- Mini pumpkins (doesn’t matter which color, just get the cheap ones. I used about a dozen)
- Eucalyptus
- Copper spray paint
- Priming spray paint
- 2-3 colors of acrylic paint of your choosing. I went with navy, hunter green (I mixed the two to make a deeper more blue-green) and copper
- Paint brush
DIRECTIONS
For the pumpkins, spray paint them with a primer. I used a little painter’s tape to keep the stems from getting painted. Once dry, paint with a mix of your colors. Definitely needs two coats usually.
You can also paint the stems gold if you want to add a metallic touch. But I kind of liked the more organic contrast to the painted look.
For the eucalyptus, we spray painted several bunches with copper spray paint. No need to be perfect here either. The imperfectness gives it a great look and keeps it looking a bit more real and less like fake flowers.
For The Table
Once your DIY pumpkins and eucalyptus are dry, you can then build your tablescape. I always like to start by creating my place settings first, and then the centerpeice. From there, we can fill in anything else to finish it off.
To create your place setting, we stuck with an all-gold theme in different tones. These placemats are beautiful and add texture. They’re a nice update to a standard gold charger. Which I am guilty of always resorting back to. The interesting shape made it feel instantly like fall.
For the plates, I found these white ones with a touch of gold on them. And then layered it with a navy appetizer plate.
A navy tablecloth and navy napkins tied it all together with the navy pumpkins that we’ll use in the centerpiece. Gold flatware and napkin rings were the perfect metallic details. And for glassware, we went with a gold rimmed water glass and matching coupes for cocktails or champagne.
For the centerpiece, we used one of the floral arrangements in the center, we then placed a mix of pumpkins and seasonal fruit like artichokes, stone fruit and figs around the arrangement. Let them sort of organically fall and lean on one another. Adding fruit to a fall tablescape is a really easy trick that adds texture and dimension.
get the look
Don’t Forget Salt & Pepper Shakers!
The finishing touches included adding these gold salt and pepper pomegranate shakers that coordinated perfectly with the theme. I think having festive salt and pepper shakers that match your setting is a really fun touch and interesting detail. Whether it’s in a festive shape, or coordinating color, anything but your standard boring salt and pepper shaker will do!
For The Buffet
To create the buffet with the pumpkins, always start by placing your food first! I recommend following these tips for creating your buffet no matter what the occasion is. I plan my out ahead of time, add post-it notes and so on so I know exactly where things will go and that everything has a place.
Once we have all of our serveware down, we then placed the pumpkins across the buffet like a big piece of garland almost. No need to create a perfect line either with your pumpkins.
Just build them up and lay them on their side and keep things feeling more organic and less lined up. Have a few on their side, stack a couple pumpkins to create height and so on.
On each side of the buffet, we placed a mix of florals, eucalyptus, candlesticks and layered in pumpkins and more seasonal fruits. Once that was all done, we then layered in more eucalyptus to fill in any gaps and add more texture along the initial pumpkin garland.
Varying heights and textural interest is really key to creating a beautiful buffet. I try to have height on either side that frames the buffet. And then fill things in throughout.
TIP: Use varying heights of cake stands to create visual interest. If you don’t have different sizes, you can always stack one on a pretty box.
If your buffet isn’t big enough for all the food, set aside dessert and just swap it out once the dinner is finished. And if your dinner table has room you can always place the salad or a side dish or two so it frees up space.
The menu for this gathering included the following dishes…
I hope you recreate this super simple and fun DIY for the holidays. It’s such an easy way to spruce up a table and buffet for guests. For more holiday ideas, check out my Holiday Destination!