Modern Thanksgiving Table 2016

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays of the year. I'm usually up late the night before baking pies with my husband and then up early Thanksgiving morning making side dishes, before finally putting the turkey in the oven. Even though I'm wiped out from baking / prepping / cooking, I love it!  In our home, Thanksgiving is a small affair. We usually have family & friends over; we watch movies, play a few board games and then eat way too much. 

Even though our Thanksgivings are intimate, I love setting a pretty table for my family. Every day we keep it pretty casual over here, that's one reason why I love the Holidays, they give me the chance to set a pretty table. I'm huge on using what I already have plus mixing in some new goodies. Below is my Thanksgiving table for 2016. As most of you know, I love mixing in Modern Elements with Classic ones. 

We have a vintage oval dining room table that can make using a runner somewhat tricky and a tablecloth just feels too formal. I created a natural table runner using eucalyptus branches. The look is so pretty and it smells incredible. In the center of the table, I used three candle holders and placed LED Candles inside. I've never used LED candles before, and I gotta say they're fantastic! They flicker & glow just like real candles and you can even use them on a timer. The seeded candle holders are from Crate & Barrel, here's a similar style here.  I also mixed in real tea lights on the table.

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Instead of one large floral centerpiece, I wanted to spread the love on the table and used two small vases to hold roses and filler flowers. I just love using my “go-to cylinder vase” for arrangements, read more about why I love this vase style here

I love white dishes.  My favorite white dishes are the Coupe everyday dishes from Target, they look instantly dressed up with napkins. I used turquoise buffet napkins and placed a bowl on top, inside the bowls I placed eucalyptus. I love adding a natural element inside the bowls to add color and texture. Don't have any eucalyptus around? You can easily place leaves, branches, herbs or mini pumpkins or place cards inside the bowls. 

My favorite desserts to make for Thanksgiving are Sweet Potato Pie and Pumpkin Pie, I have a to-die-for Sweet Potato Pie recipe that I'll share next week. If you've never made Sweet Potato Pie or even had it,  it’s a #GameChanger and you'll quickly be hooked. 

Did you catch a glimpse of my pretty silverware on my table? I've been wanting to buy new flatware for a long time, like over a year. The current set we have is nice, but we're missing spoons, forks and knives! I've been on the hunt for modern sleek silverware, that isn’t a budget buster that we can use every day and it will still look good and is dishwasher safe. I found the perfect set at Macy's from Towle Living the Luxor 42 piece set for $100 bucks, but I just couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger. Then last week, I saw the a Luxor 20 piece set on Amazon for only $35.00 and quickly bought two sets, two for less than the 42 piece set. Plus, my shipping was free! 

My new silverware set arrived a few days ago and I'm obsessed, the flatware has a nice weight to it and bonus, its dishwasher safe, never needs to be polished and is so elegant! I've went a little silverware crazy this month, I'll share more goodies for your holiday (and year round) tables on Thursday. 

One last look at my Thanksgiving table for this year! I'm so looking forward to gathering around the table with my family and sharing what we're thankful for. Since moving back into our home after re-building it from the fire, every Holiday celebration feels more meaningful and I love making memories

What type of Thanksgiving Dinner do you celebrate, super casual? Formal? And the biggest question what time do you sit down for dinner? I don't like eating Thanksgiving dinner until 5pm or later! Growing up, we had dinner at 1pm which I hated! 

Living Room Update: Jute Rug Addition / Addiction

For the past couple of months, I've been wanting to make some changes in my living room and freshen it up. While, I love the flat weave rug in our living room and the color grey. It was just too much grey, grey sofas + grey walls + grey rug = grey overload. One of the cool things about having hardwood floors in your home, is they can handle loads of color. After looking at a slew of rug options, I came to the conclusion a natural fiber rug for our living room would be a fantastic option and look timeless. 

I'm a modern girl at heart I love clean lines and non-fussy spaces and I also love classic elements in rooms that look good year after year. I'm all about staying power when it comes to my foundation pieces in my home. I've been a fan of natural rugs for quite sometime, specially woven jute rugs. Prior to re-building our floor, we had a jute rug in our living room. Jute rugs just look so timeless and can be a great foundation for laying another rug on-top. After searching high and low, I found a fantastic Woven Jute rug, and I'm in love! 

Our new rug arrived about three weeks ago, and I wanted to make sure I absolutely loved the rug before sharing all the deets on the blog. I ordered the Barley Twist Jute Natural rug from West Elm for an incredible price, only $399 for a 9x12 rug. Which was a total steal! I was a little nervous to pair a natural color rug with my grey sofas, but they look so fantastic together. 

I'm also happy, I went with a larger area rug this time, the 9x12 rug fills out our small living room nicely and basically floats in the room, with about 1.5 feet to spare. Another plus, is the light color and larger size helps to create the illusion our living room is bigger by drawing your eyes down and out. We placed the new rug over our existing rug pad to give the jute jug extra cushion + help protect our hardwood floors.    

Barely Twist Jute Rug Pluses & Negatives 

  • The woven pattern & design look fantastic both in real life & in person
  • The bottom of the rug is almost flat woven like, nagative - the rug can;t be flipped
  • Its pretty soft underfoot, but can feel a little bumpy
  • We've experienced a little shedding on the rug, which is normal since its made with natural fibers 

I was a little nervous to unroll the rug since our puppy is only 8 months, I was mostly concerned with him getting overexcited and marking our rug! I was also nervous about his nails potentially getting caught in the rug. So far all my fears, haven't happened! Our puppy seems to like layer on the rug.

I'm seriously smitten & addicted to Jute rugs, they're perfect options for high traffic areas. My family spends a lot of time in our living room and this rug will for sure get a lot of action. Next up on my list to update in our living room, pillows. You all know how much I love pillows and now that my floors have gotten some love, its time to give my sofas some love with new pillows. I freaking cannot wait until the goodies arrive in my mailbox, I'm so ready to do a happy pillow dance. I'll share more pictures of our living room, along with some additional changes I'm considering making to our space once the pillows arrive and are in place. 

What time of rug do you have in your living room? Are you a natural fiber rug person too?  What do you think our new rug?