Thanksgiving with Style

Thanksgiving is only two weeks away! For all you hosts out there, don’t wait for the panic to set in. Take care of your tabletop(s) now so that you can put your heart into the food preparation later… and actually enjoy it.

Whether you have a game plan or not, I’d recommend popping into The Little Flower Shoppe in Ridgewood, NJ for their Stress-free Holiday Decorating Party tomorrow night (Thursday, Nov 14, 2013, 6-8pm). RSVP: 201 652 7600 or info@raimondihg.com. Fabulous flower extraordinaire, Anne Miller (who has worked with the likes of Preston Bailey and David Tutera) will be giving floral advice and dishing inspirational tabletop ideas. Ridgewood Fare will be serving up delicious bites and giving pointers on cuisine. And in the proper spirit of Thanksgiving, a portion of the evenings sales proceeds will be going to Children’s Aid and Family Services.

Here is the Thanksgiving table I styled with florals and frills from said Anne Miller. I asked for “dark, rich and deadly” and she delivered:

Photography by Laura Moss.
Anne sourced all the flowers (and miniature orchids) and fruit (miniature eggplants, figs, gourds, grapes, various berries, and these incredible little green spiky seedpods) directly from the flower district in New York. Bring her any vessel that’s right for your table, mantle, doorway, etc and she will fill it with the the most beautiful work you’ve ever seen.

The salad plates and dinner plates are from a totally fabulous buying trip to 200+ year-old porcelain factory, Royal Limoges—the oldest existing porcelain factory in all of Limoges, France—but you can pull this look off with whatever whites you have at home. Throw a pop color in there for fun: I found these celadon green dinner plates at Crate & Barrel that at first I thought were a knock off, but I they appear to actually be made by Jars, a very well respected stoneware factory in France (I also have a set of this exact dinnerware in a dark green: it’s totally awesome and totally rustic and totally perfect for a hearty Thanksgiving meal). The flatware is a vintage brass set I picked up at an estate sale years ago, but I found a ton of Ricci Argentieri’s “Bamboo d’Oro” on (my favorite website) replacements.com. Frankly I’d recommend the electroplated gold over the brass any day because mine is nearly impossible to keep polished. There are tons of sets on online auction houses too… happy hunting and happy thanksgiving! xx Mere

Ottoman Empire

Everyone needs a place in their home where—after a long day at work—you can kick up your heels and enjoy some BRAVO Housewives or a crossword puzzle. I’m working on decorating ours right now, but I’ve had the hardest time finding the right ottoman. Everything is too high, too tufted, too leather, too steampunk, or just too damn expensive. So when I stumbled across one that was cheap as dirt and just the right dimensions, I nabbed it: with plans to reupholster immediately.


I’ll likely need to recover it every year or two, so I kept the job quick and easy-to-replicate. Using some neutral fabrics I already had, I came up with a simple design that would do the trick and withstand some wear and tear.

Here’s how I took this piece from fugly to fab in under 20 minutes:
I cut the base fabric with a little excess and stapled it taught to the underside of the ottoman. It was a little tricky around the legs but—once stapled in place—I was able to loosen the legs, then pinch the fabric to the ottoman. I cut 2 wide strips of the striped fabric, laid them perpendicular across the ottoman and stapled them taught as well, one at a time. I trimmed the excess fabric and tacked the overlapping strips in place with a few simple stitches here and there (so it won’t get mangled from foot traffic).

Et Voila, there you have an ottoman empire ready for conquering…

Chenille alligator-print rug is by Martha Stewart Home, morroccan tray is an antique, my absolutely favorite scented candle is by Kilian Hennessy, large woven throw pillow by Ashanti (of Cape Town, South Africa), and the best damn dog in the world, Ella, is our rescue Potcake from Jamaica (the island, not the borough).

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