6 Things You Need For Your Spring Brunch Table
Whenever spring comes along, it always means a fresh start for many of us, and with great reason. In with the warm, sunny days, some rain, fresh flowers, outdoor dining, family gatherings and well, among other things, more brunches! What typically ushers this flurry in? For me, it has always been Easter, however spring is a whole season, so there is plenty of time to take advantage of this before we up the ante for summer.
Growing up this period involved church sermons and gatherings but also more time with the family. With that comes food, and well, table setting! Hence the inspiration to put this blog post together.
Before I dive into a list of items I think can help spruce up your table, if you are looking for some recipes for the next few days and the rest of the season, check out my post on 6 Recipes For Easter Brunch. Flex your cooking muscles and displays some of these plates on a set up similar to the one below!
All these items can be found at your nearest home and good store, but you can always just order online.
8 things that can brighten up the dining room this spring, and bring the table to life before the food arrives.
Table Runner
It may depend on your table, but I think, for the most part, you will benefit from a table runner. It can serve multiple purposes, starting with setting the balance down the middle of the table for all the other items. The table runner can also to set the tone and colour scheme and instantly brightens the table, particularly if you get one with white or pastel colours. You can always reuse your table runners and build a collection that can be circulated throughout the year. If this is your plan, the hihger the quality the better, this one is from Crate&Barrel.
Floral Centerpiece
Now that you have the table runner to pick colours from, you can set a centerpiece in the middle of the table and work around that further. Fresh flowers in a vase will also brighten up the table and hopefully brings a floral scent. I recommend a tall bouquet to add some height diversity and make it more dynamic and dimensional. You could also get 3-4 sets of flowers and vases and evenly place them out on the table with smaller units around those, you typically see this at weddings. This is something you can pick up at your local grocer’s florist. Spring is associated with tulips, weigelas, and daffodils to name a few, but pick whatever you like as long as it brings some life and colour.
Placement Mats
Another important element that will determine where everything else in the table will be placed are the mats you put your plates in. The color is especially important. Mats can either be very conservative and plain, rustic, or unique and fun. I got these stencil ones with bunny and Easter egg shapes made by Isaac Mizrahi I thought were particularly lovely. Material may also be something important to you in terms of picking something that is easy to clean.
Complimentary Centerpieces
You’ll want to put some pieces around the main centrepiece — floral or not. This is where you can go to town and have a lot of fun! I like to double them up to have matching pieces on each side of the table. In this case, smaller and shorter floral pieces, ornaments made of marble, porcelain, glass or ceramic, and scented candles. Now that your colour palette and patterns have been established by the table runner and placement mats, it is easier to choose the style you want! I think it’s okay to have a few stand out pieces here and there too, like little woven baskets or in this case, a golden bunny? Yes!
Painted Eggs
Even if your brunch takes place after Easter or you don’t celebrate, eggs are a good idea for the spring. They denote new life and opportunity, and could involve a fun activity if you have children. You could make them at home, or get some store bought and paint over them. After brunch, use the eggs in an egg hunt, or egg race! Alternately, they would make a great gift if you are attending another brunch as a guest. Some of these can get quite fancy and expensive depending on the material and who made them. Etsy has a plethora so you can get them online, or from a regular home goods chain like Marshalls.
Plates, Cutlery, and Finishing Touches
The last thing to consider for everything to come together is what you use actually to enjoy the delicious food!
Let's start off with the plates — you'll want standard ones to eat off that match for everyone at the table. Then you'll want some serving plates for each dish. I prefer the standard eating plates to be plain without a lot of patterns or textures like prints and grooves to focus on the food. In both cases, this is when you can match the placement mats and other colours on the table. I choose yellow and got a set of melamine plates made by Rachel Zoe. I got a party bowl from Whimsical Cupboard 10 Strawberry Street for serving plates and a textured, floral plate from Maxcera's Spring Collection.
For drinking, tea cups for tea and coffee drinkers are certainly useful. I got some pink fine porcelain tea cups and saucer made by Grace Teaware to match the colour scheme, as well as some hand-painted stemless wine glasses that can be used for rose, orange juice, whatever you are drinking.
One of my favourite was a piece of decor to sit on top of the plates. A lot of people use a serviette instead and shape it into something like bunny ears. This is a great skill to have, but as an alternative, I got some utensil holders, also from Isaac Mizrahi. These are so cute! All you have to do to place your fork and knife in the pouch and call it a day.
