7 Easy Centerpiece Ideas for a Mother’s Day or Spring Table Setting

Welcome to the 554th Tablescape Thursday!

With Mother’s Day just 10 days away, I was thinking today about centerpieces that would be affordable and easy to create for a pretty Mother’s Day table. All of the tables I’m sharing, except for one which is more of a DIY project, would be easy to create with items you probably already have around your home.

Click the title of any table below to view more of that table setting.

Have a watering can? If not, you can pick one up in your local hardware store. I purchased the one in this tablescape below online here: Green Watering Can.

Fill your watering can with flowers from your garden, or pick some up from the garden shop in your local grocery store. Trader Joes is also a great place to find beautiful, reasonably-priced bouquets.

Limelight Hydrangeas in Watering Can

Spring Tablescape, Kim Parker Floral Charger Plates, Bee Skep Tureens and Bee Flatware

 

Don’t have a watering can? A pretty pitcher will work just as well.

Limelight Hydrangeas in White Pitcher

Limelight Hydrangeas for a Summer Table Setting

 

Shop your house, you may have another item that will work great as a vase for flowers. In this table setting, I used an antique graniteware pitcher I purchased 20+ years ago. In this case, the sunflowers were faux, but I have placed real ones in this pitcher several times before.

Sunflowers in Swirl Graniteware Pitcher

Blue & White Antique Graniteware

 

4th of July Table Setting

Since it’s old and prone to leak slightly, I always place a container inside and fill it with water, instead of the graniteware pitcher. I did that for this 4th of July table setting where I used live sunflowers.

 

I also did that when I decorated the porch one year and had real sunflowers on the wicker coffee table in the seating area of the porch.

Patriotic Porch for 4th of July

 

Even a basket will work well for holding fresh flowers, at least temporarily for a Mother’s Day dinner. As I recall, I think I had a good size bowl of water tucked down into the bottom of this wicker basket.

Spring Table with Daffodil and Camellia Centerpiece

Centerpiece of Daffodils and Camellias

 

If you’re up for a little DIY project, this tiered, terracotta centerpiece will have a big impact. It was a lot of fun to make! I need to bring it out this summer and fill it again with flowers.

Tiered Planter from Terra Cotta Saucers

 

Since this planter is tall, you’ll want to move it to another location nearby when everyone sits down for dinner. (Tutorial can be found here: Tiered Planter from Terra Cotta Saucers)

 

Camellias in Tiered Centerpiece

There are other ways to get a “tiered” look in your centerpiece. For this camellia centerpiece, I stacked a small, raised serving bowl atop of raised cake stand. Look around your home, you may find some items you can stack together that you hadn’t thought of before. Just be careful to make sure they stack well and are nice and stable to avoid any mishaps.

Debutante-Camellias-in-a-Tiered-Centerpiece-for-Spring-Tablescape

 

You don’t always have to use flowers in your centerpiece. If you have a few clear bottles gathering dust in the garage or basement, put them to work in a candlelight centerpiece that cost almost nothing to create. They don’t have to be tall bottles like I used here, even shorter, glass containers like pickle jars will work. Just use plenty of them for a dramatic impact.

If you don’t have that many clear bottles, start saving/collecting them now and you’ll be set for creating this table in the future. I kept all these bottles after I took this centerpiece apart because I would love to create it again for a future dinner party. It’s especially nice in the late evening when it’s getting dark out.

Candlelight Dining on the Porch

Romantic Candlelight Tablescape in Silver and White

 

Hope these past centerpieces will provide a little inspiration for your upcoming spring-summer dinner parties! Happy spring to you!

Looking forward to the beautiful tables shared for this week’s Tablescape Thursday!

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Tablescape Thursday

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Comments

  1. Wow! It would be impossible to choose my favorite when you have all these beautiful tablescapes together in one post. All are beautiful and showcase your creativity. Love your amazing porch. Happy spring.

  2. Those limelights are well named–they really steal the show, don’t they? And how clever to use the stacked items for the camellias and the bottles for the candles. Fun post about using things around the house and one’s imagination.

  3. I love the tiered ones especially, but they are all wonderful!! Thanks for the party Susan!

  4. What a great collection of centerpieces. I’ve pinned away today!

  5. Cecilia says

    Susan,
    whenever you post pictures of tablescapes you created, I so, so wish you could/would make postcards out of them or turn them into puzzles!
    I mean, look at them! They’re all sooo beautiful and elegant and feminine and romantic… OhGosh, I’d immediately frame all of them and hang them everywhere in my house! 🙂 Susan, I rented a new home (to me) where hubby and I spent the Easter holidays at the beach in Hollande this year and do you know where the home owner (a cute and nice elderly lady) had multi colored tulips planted in? In a vintage wicker/rattan baby stroller that she actually used for her daughter several decades ago! Unfortunately the cute lady lost her daughter to cancer a few years ago but I thought it’s so sweet of her to keep that baby stroller as a beautiful and nostalgic memento of her girl… 🙁 PS: I’m going to spend the Mother’s Day’s weekend (3 days) in that house again. It’ll be just my son and me… it’s the kind of gift I value the most. ♥

    • Awww, thanks so much Cecilia! You made my day with your sweet comment! ♥
      What a neat way to repurpose the stroller. That’s heartbreaking that she lost her daughter to cancer. We are NOT supposed to outlive our children.
      🙁 So sad.
      I know how you feel, Cecilia. My favorite, favorite Mother’s Days are the ones where I’ve been able to be with my son that day. That’s always the absolute best gift he could give me…his time. Love him so much!

      I know you’ll have a wonderful Mother’s Day! ♥♥♥

  6. Thank you for hosting for us this week.
    Have a happy May.
    Fabby

  7. I love the pot tower and the white/bottle table, one fun and seasonal, the other calm and romantic…lots of great ideas! Thanks, Sandi

    • Thanks, Sandi! Spring and summer are my favorite times of the year, although I’m starting to come around the beauty and comfort of winter…slowly. lol Happy spring to you! XXX

  8. Cyndi Raines says

    All so very pretty and unique! Love the candlelight table, it gets me every time! Thanks Susan.

  9. Kathleen says

    All the settings are so pretty. The candles with the various clear bottles…what a great idea! Love those sunflowers too.

  10. Bobbi Duncan says

    Any mother would feel extra special seeing a table set so beautifully just for her! You always come up with such great combinations of china. You’ve given me sooo many great tips on so many levels through the years, and I appreciate them all, sweetie. Wishing you a lovely Mother’s Day! Hugs!

  11. I think all of your tablescapes are simply enchanting. Thank you for the repurposing suggestions.

  12. Biodynamic Barb says

    Dear Susan,
    A few weeks ago I was gratified to see that you ‘play around with’ your table settings before you settle on the final look. Until then, I assumed you had an idea in your head, laid the table, and was done with it. Me? It takes me weeks – WEEKS – to get the setting right!

    So…I was wondering, since you do occasionally showcase other people’s tables, if you’d be willing to do a “class” on tablescaping using my latest endeavor as your subject. It’s been through so many iterations, and I’m still not happy with it. I thought you might offer your advice, and then ask your readers for theirs.

    If you’re interested, I’ll send you some photos of my Spring Brunch Table.

    • It really varies every week. Some weeks when I am setting a table, I have an idea in mind…maybe something spurred on by a recent purchase like new napkins or new salad plates. Or, maybe an upcoming holiday will be my impetus for a table setting. But sometimes I have absolutely no idea what I’m going to do until I walk downstairs and start thinking about it. I often change my mind several times during the making of a table. Sometimes I start out positive I’m going to used XYZ china and then get 2/3rds into the table and I don’t like how it’s turning out, so I put that china up and go for something different. Some tables are created in an hour or two and some take me several hours, if not all day. There really is no set method for putting one together since they are all so very different.
      I really would not feel comfortable critiquing someone’s table setting here on the blog because there’s no such thing as a bad table setting or a right or wrong way to do one. I look back at some of my previous tables now and see things I would probably do differently now.

      Barb, one thing that really helps (if you think a table setting isn’t looking quite as you had hoped) is to take photos of it, download them to your computer and look at them. I sometimes don’t see things I wish I had done differently until I see the table in photos I’ve taken. Next time you create a table, take photos of it and then download those to your laptop or computer, and look at them. It’s amazing the things you’ll see that you didn’t notice before.

      The very best advice I could give anyone is to simply experiment around while you’re creating the table. As an example…don’t pull out one set of napkins and use those without trying some others, as well. When I set a table setting, I look at the colors in the plates and then I go pull 4, 5 or 6 different napkins from my napkin stash and I try them all. It takes some time to do that but it’s the only way I’m going to know what works best with that particular setting. When you are trying different napkins (or napkin rings, flatware or whatever) it will become clear which ones work best when you see it with your own eyes, but you have to try them all, or at least I do. I don’t just open up my napkin drawer and instantly pull out the perfect match for my table…it’s all trial and error…which of course, takes time.

      It would be hard for me to make suggestions for someone else’s table since I have no idea what they own or have available to use. I’ve gradually accumulated a lot of napkins, flatware, napkin rings, etc… over the past 40 years, so that definitely helps when you have more to pull from.

      If you like, you can send me some photos to [email protected] , and in your email let me know what you don’t think is working or what you don’t like. Maybe if you tell me what you aren’t happy with, I can make a few suggestions.

      • Biodynamic Barb says

        I think I’ve taken about 200 photos! I will send you a few of the best ones tomorrow. Thank you!!!

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