Interior Decorating

Transitional Table Settings

Transitional table settings

This month, Bobbi Jo Cody of The Red Silo staged table settings that could easily transition from fall to winter-themed.

Photos by Becca Opp

It seems like Christmas comes earlier and earlier every year. However, there are some who strongly believe that Thanksgiving should have its own moment. Here at Design & Living Magazine, we say, “Why not both?” This month, Bobbi Jo Cody of The Red Silo staged a table setting that could easily transition from fall to winter-themed.

Now, you might be wondering why anyone would ever want to celebrate two seasons at the same time in their home decor. Well, there are several situations in which this mixture of fall and winter would come in very handy. Maybe you have distant relatives flying into town for a visit around holiday time, but not actually on Thanksgiving or Christmas. If you have ever been caught under similar circumstances and felt torn about which season to decorate for, Cody has some helpful advice to share.

Transitional table settings

Transitional table settings

Bobbi Jo Cody is an art instructor with the Fargo Public School System and owns The Red Silo in Downtown Fargo along with her husband, Todd Cody.

Transitional Table Settings: Tips

To create a table setting that would transition easily from fall to winter, simply use leaf-shaped placemats with your choice of plates and a poinsettia napkin ring. In this case, Cody did not use a charger plate because the ones that she had were larger in size and featured an intricate border. “The pattern around the plate is a little busier. If I had just a white dinner plate, I would use a charger,” Cody explained.

She also likes to incorporate greens when she can. For this table setting, her greens are the poinsettias, but they can be switched out for spruce clippings and a different set of napkin rings. Another hint from Cody is to leave your formal dining table set, no matter what the time of day. “I absolutely love setting my table and I leave it set all the time. We do a lot of eating at our island, so I love to have our table set for all of the different seasons,” she said.

Transitional table settings

Transitional Table Settings: Pros

There are many pros to transitional table settings. For one thing, it takes care of the dilemma of what season to decorate for during the last week of November. This means less work for you because you can slowly start to add winter decor. Eventually, you can just swap out the leaf placemats, and voila, it’ll begin to look a lot like Christmas in your home.

Transitional table settings

On the reclaimed wood shelves that stand next to her formal dining table, Cody decorated with elf heads from an old Dayton’s display, architectural spindles from an old house, an antique scale, a primitive bread bowl, milk glass, crystal and a canvas print of an old photo that has significance to her family. “The woman in the garden is my great-great grandmother who came, when she was 16, from Norway. She came by herself with a trunk and somehow made her way to Minnesota, where she married my great-great grandfather. Those are her children, and one of the smallest girls in the photo is my great-grandmother. That is their house that they settled in, up in the Turtle Mountains, by Bottineau,” Cody shared.

Transitional table settings

No gathering is complete without a couple of grazing plates and a bottle of wine on your buffet or as a part of your tablescape. Cody’s choice of cheese plate comes from Luna, her candy dish is filled with goodies from Rogue Candies and her wine is from Rookery Rock Winery.

Transitional Table Settings: Cons

Obvious cons to decorating for two seasons at the same time is that it might feel a bit strange at first. The natural instincts that remind you what time of year it is may be a little confused. (Although, doesn’t the weather have this effect too?) If you prefer to keep your seasonal decor separate, we completely understand. However, you can’t deny that there is a time and a place for transitional decor and you never know when you are going to need some inspiration!

 

 

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