My husband’s heritage is Irish on both sides of his family, so St. Patrick’s Day tends to be a big holiday for our home! We celebrate every year and while the menu never changes – I make a classic shepherd’s pie and chocolate stout cupcakes – I try to design a different table every year that is both fun and on theme.
This year’s table was inspired by the woods of Ireland, keeping the look green and earthy with wood accents. It’s a little untraditional (no belles of Ireland this year), but I do have a few clovers scattered around the table to keep our holiday filled with Irish luck!
For this year’s table, I started with the florals and kept everything somewhat understated to keep with my “into the woods” theme, using a lot of greenery, tiny white flowers, and a few green larkspur stems as a garland for the table.
I then added decorative accents to enhance this St. Patrick’s Day Irish theme with four-leaf clovers. I placed these beautiful brass clovers I found at Irish on Grand (a wonderful Irish store In Minneapolis that also has on online presence), as well as some smaller jeweled clovers I purchased from Joanna Buchanan a few years ago.
To keep my clover theme going, I added linen napkins to each place setting that had clovers stitched into the border of the napkins.
For the finishing touches, I added distressed gold votives that matched the compote bowl I used for the flower arrangement, then added glass bowls filled with chocolate gold coins to pick up on the brightness of the brass clovers.
I added more lighting with candles using both dark wood pillar holders to match the wood charge plates and black matte iron taper holders to complement the dark tones in the tablescape. When adding accents to the table, try to incorporate various levels, textures and colors to tie your table theme together.
Setting the table
Then I started with the place settings, beginning with a dark wood charger plate on top of a woven green placemat, then adding layers of plates. The dinner plates I’ve had for many years (they are from Williams-Sonoma) and I use them for various holidays (if you’ve seen this year’s Valentine’s Day table, you’ve seen them there too!). I like the woven detail on the edge, and with an accent salad plate in green, they become perfect for this year’s St. Patrick’s Day table. Both the salad plates and small crystal dessert plates I found on replacements.com, a great website for finding vintage or discontinued patterns.
I finished the place setting by adding a bud vase with small white flowers at each place setting. I tend to do this with all of my table designs to add a little color and whimsy to each place setting and in some instances, I also tuck some of the same greenery or florals I’ve used in the centerpiece underneath the charger plate to tie the color theme together there.
I then added some crystal accents and gold flatware to brighten the table and balance the darker tones of the wood chargers and dark green plates.
Because my tablescapes are typically built for two, I look for individual plates or stemware to purchase rather than full sets. This lets me add a few plates to my collection without overwhelming the cabinets! While I find a lot of fun items at stores like Home Goods, I also find pieces at replacements.com, a great website for finding vintage or discontinued patterns.
Enjoying a delicious dinner at this lovely St. Patrick’s Day table made the occasion more of a celebration! We saved room for the chocolate stout cupcakes, of course – they were scrumptious!
I hope you’ve found some inspiration for your next St. Patrick’s Day table setting, and maybe even some new recipe ideas for the big celebratory meal – until next time, Slainte!
