Table decor ideas

April 4, 2016

Guests at the Stella Artois event dined at several long, farm-style tables, which had no linens—but were instead topped with abundant white flowers.

Photo: Michael Buckner/Getty Images for Stella Artois

At the Adam Lippes for Target preview in New York last year, David Stark Designs set up a rooftop garden for a picnic-style event using Adam Lippes blankets, pillows, and travel bags.

Photo: Courtesy of LaForce & Stevens

Bunting hung over 170 tables for 700 guests in the V.I.P. picnic space within the Veuve Clicquot Polo Classic in Los Angeles in 2013.

Photo: Claire Barrett Photography

Adrienne Bosh, who is married to Miami Heat player Chris Bosh, hosted a motivational event known as “Glamchella” last summer in Miami. At the affair, bohemian-inspired decor included textured table linens, Buddha sculptures, lanterns, and jewel-toned cushions for seating.

Photo: April Belle Photos

For its first foray in Austin, Texas, the Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS hosted the Urban Picnic by Design event in 2014. Rebekah Gainsley of Blink Interiors covered a table with a hammock-like lace canopy with lights and potted plants.

Photo: Nadia Chaudhury/BizBash

During the Coachella Valley Music and Arts festival in the Southern California desert last year, the Retreat at the Sparrows Lodge topped a table with floral arrangements, taper candlesticks, games, and other objects that created a relaxed atmosphere.

Photo: Tyler Curtis

The Coachella event’s design also included a silk patchwork canopy for relaxed seating amid Persian rugs, Native American artifacts, succulents, kilim pillows, and leather accents.

Photo: Tyler Curtis

Stella Artois launched its "Host Beautifully" campaign in Los Angeles last May with a picnic-style alfresco event that invited guests to go in short rides on tethered hot-air balloons that were branded with the company's logo.

Photo: Michael Buckner/Getty Images for Stella Artois

In Los Angeles in October, Weight Watchers hosted a dinner offering healthy fare from Katsuya chef Jennie Trinh, which guests ate at a long wooden table accented by pumpkins and fall foliage.

Photo: Tiger Tiger Studio

The centerpieces of leaves, pine cones, fruits, and beaded flowers sat in mahogany pedestal bowls.

Photo: Emily Gilbert for BizBash

At the D.C. Chapter of the International Special Events Society's tabletop design competition in 2010, Edge Floral Event Designers created centerpieces that evoked harvest time with sugared grapes and pears.

Photo: Tony Brown/imijphoto.com for BizBash

When Target debuted its so-called "shoppable film" called Falling for You at Los Angeles's SLS Hotel in 2012, guests dined on a four-course meal from the Bazaar's José Andrés at long tables decked with vessels each containing a monochrome arrangement in fall colors for an ombre-like look.

Photo: Claire Barrett

At BizBash's IdeaFest Chicago last year, Jewell Events Catering founder George Jewell brought 200 mini pumpkins from his own Michigan farm to create a special catering station where guests could get theirs filled with chipotle mashed potatoes with braised short ribs, kale salad, or pumpkin-spice mousse.

Photo: Jenny Berg/BizBash

The Bloor Street Entertains fund-raiser for the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research in 2008 featured wheat sheaves on tabletops at Roots Canada.

Photo: BizBash

For a 125th anniversary celebration for Hearst in San Francisco in 2012, Van Wyck & Van Wyck created dramatic arrangements that included towering branches sprouting maple leaves.

Photo: Courtesy of Van Wyck & Van Wyck

The Canadian Opera Company intended to celebrate Cinderella with the silver-painted pumpkins at its 2010 Operanation benefit, but the look works equally well for a luxe fall effect.

Photo: Emma McIntyre for BizBash

In November 2004, Reed Smith held its first pre-Thanksgiving feast, an intimate dinner in New York's Altman Building designed to show appreciation for staff and clients. To give the long banquet tables a less corporate feel, planners worked with event designer Keith Pierpont from Pierpont's Blossom Farm and Sal Mastropolo of Theatrical Props to fashion miniature fireplaces that acted as centerpieces.

Photo: Anna Sekula/BizBash

Performance art organization Performa is known for its quirky events that put art at the forefront of the experience. In 2012, the nonprofit's fall gala was inspired by Relâche, Francis Picabia and Erik Satie's surrealist ballet of 1924. In keeping with that, the menu from Bite Food played off the surrealist works of Salvador Dali and René Magritte and included a dinner that started with whole lady apples—a nod to Magritte's iconic self portrait, "The Son of Man."

Photo: Clint Spaulding/PatrickMcMullan.com

Brooklyn Museum's Artists Ball

Event designer David Stark and his team designed the sixth annual event, which took place April 20 in the museum’s Beaux Arts Court. Inspired by Constantin Brancusi’s sculptures, particularly the “Endless Column,” and the party’s white-hot theme, Stark transformed the space with towering totems made from stacked rolls of household and industrial paper goods, which rose from the dining tables in varying heights, up to 21 feet. The paper goods will be used by the museum throughout the rest of the year.

Photo: Susie Montagna

The Friends of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s Spring Gala

Taking inspiration from a French garden, New York-based Tyger Productions transformed the Four Seasons' ballroom for the event, which was held May 20 in Boston, with saturated fuchsia lighting, bright pink napkins, and custom-printed gold foil programs. Manicured boxwood topiary centerpieces adorned with hand-crafted feather butterflies proved to be the guests’ favorite decor item of the night.

Photo: Sly Photography

Museum of Modern Art’s Party in the Garden

For this year’s annual benefit, which took place June 1, the Museum of Modern Art’s lobby and atrium area were once again transformed into a chic garden party. Drum-shaped chandeliers covered in greenery hung above the dining space, which was outfitted with primarily gray furnishings.

Photo: Cornelia Stiles/BizBash

Blaffer Art Museum's Odyssey Gala

For the Blaffer Art Museum’s annual gala in Houston, creative studio Matter designed a gilded meteor shower ceiling installation using NASA space blankets—an idea inspired by the space theme of the April 1 event, as well as the metallic trends seen on recent fashion runways. The creative team also created custom floral centerpieces, using the blankets and dianthus plants, that floated above circular mirrors for an anti-gravity effect.

Photo: Max Burkhalter

Public Art Fund's Spring Benefit

Thought-bubble placemats inspired by Hank Willis Thomas' exhibition, "The Truth is I See You," served as tabletop decor at the arts organization’s fund-raiser, held April 19 at Metropolitan Pavilion West in New York. The messages morphed into different languages thanks to the optical illusion design.

Photo: Taylor McIntyre/BizBash

C2 Catering Couture's Fortune Cookies

In Toronto, C2 Catering Couture serves sugar bubbles filled with chocolate mousse and a fortune cookie. The dessert is served alongside a hammer to crack open the sphere.

Photo: Courtesy of C2 Catering Couture