St Georges Day Red & White Decorated Table

It’s Thursday so I’m Entertaining & Celebrating!

Red & White Decorated Table

It’s St George’s day here in the UK next week and it’s also Robert the Husband’s birthday this coming weekend so I had two events, of sorts, that I wanted to design a new table for. Red & white seemed like a good tonic after the pastels of Easter and it’s also super patriotic, which can be nice occasionally especially when this little island has been experiencing so much financial woe over the last year or so.

It’s amusing to me that so many people are now waxing lyrical about the benefits and, to be frank, joy that comes from ‘making do’. The media and literary world are awash with books and television programs about how to thrift, refurbish, craft and decorate using odds and ends that have cost mere pennies. I’m not certain but haven’t you been doing that sort of thing for ages? I have. I found some old pictures the other day taken in the Summer of 1991 when I was sixteen years old. I remember it so clearly. My Dad had just been given lots of great old furniture that belonged to a lady that his mother (our Nana) had known. It was wonderful stuff with good bones but it was dark and had an awful varnished appearance. What did I spend that Summer doing? Stripping off the varnish and re-painting it in various bright colours before ‘shabbying’ it up with some soft grain sandpaper.

Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, is more galling to me than spending money needlessly. Especially when the same effect can be achieved with a little foraging, imagination and nerve. I truly think that the ‘Make Do & Mend’ ethos that was crafted during times of war in the last century is in us naturally as human beings and as a basic survival mechanism. It’s also bloody good fun and a great skill to call upon when times are tough financially.

So, don’t be fooled by folk that tell you that this ‘making stuff’ is something that only other people can do. Each one of these table mats took less that twenty minutes to make and is sturdy enough to last for a very long time. They were inexpensive and can be tailored to fit your home and made in any colour scheme you wish. Pink and blue, yellow and green, whatever you fancy. I went for Red & White because they are not colours that I often use in such abundance. Which is another reason for getting crafty, it allows you to be frivolous and experimental.

If you’re partial to a wee bit of sewing at the weekend I’ll take you through how I made these babies tomorrow in my Crafting section, but having laid the table using nothing but Red & White items I have to say that it’s effective. It’s bright and cheery and if the weather is good and you’re outside it brightens up an old garden table no end.

I planted a mixed bag of tulip bulbs last Autumn and luckily enough more than a few came up red in colour. They were promptly picked and added to the table.

In white milk glass of course and placed next to the red and white Cherry Bakewells.

My red and white spotted coffee mug was there by accident as I happened to be drinking out of it at the time, but it got to hang out for a while because it matched.

The backs of the chairs didn’t escape the red and white invasion and were decorated with wooden and stuffed fabric hearts…..

….and one of my all time favourite flowers, Chrysanthemums (soon to be used in pots on my front windowsill) sat in a red pot (that housed a Poinsettia this past Christmas) quite nicely as part of this two tone set up.

You can see how bright this red & white table is by comparing it to the dull, weather beaten table and chairs that are just in view. I’ll have to give them a once over before Summer gets into full swing but if they are covered up for the time being that’s really not so bad!!!!!!

I’ll be here again tomorrow and you’ll see just how easy those table mats are to put together.

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