Thanksgiving Centerpieces by Richmond Bloggers

Looking for a cool centerpiece to grace your table this Thanksgiving? We've got you covered!

We asked crafty Richmond bloggers Darling Octopus, Marthable and stylist Wendy Umanoff to send us their Thanksgiving creations.

And you get to vote for your fave! Vote here - Voting Ends at 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 19. The winner will receive a $50 gift certicate to Morton's.

Darling Octopus
Karen Guard

I wanted to design a centerpiece that my son could help me with. I knew I wanted to include elements from nature so we went to the park and collected tree branches, acorns and mini pine cones. I used the acorns and pine cones around some simple white candles in glass hurricane containers. I loved the look of the bare branches so I put them in a mason jar and made it into a thankful tree. This makes a great Thanksgiving day activity - everyone can add a couple "leaves" with things they are thankful for that year. This is going to be a new tradition at our house! Instead of spending a lot of money on a new table cloth I just went to the fabric store and bought a yard of fabric to use as a table runner. I didn't even sew it - I just folded it and used some iron on adhesive to finish the ends. I'm not very good at flower arranging so I bought some mercury glass votive holders and used them as little vases for some easy flower arrangements. I bought a clearance grocery store bouquet and picked out the fall color flowers that matched my color scheme. A friend of ours is a farmer and she brought us the pumpkins and gourds - they add really nice color and interesting shapes to the table.

Price: $32

Marthable
Lesley Bruno

Every year, I watch sadly as my Halloween pumpkins get eaten by squirrels. I don’t really do much about this, except shake my fist and scream at the squirrels through the window and then discard the pitiful, half-eaten husks right around Thanksgiving.

This year, however, I’m treating my pumpkins they way they deserve to be treated, by bringing them indoors and incorporating them into a Thanksgiving centerpiece. It’s perfect really. Thanksgiving is a great holiday because it’s the inexpensive precursor to that looming wallet-suck called Christmas. It’s when we give thanks for what we have before going out and buying a whole lot more to add to it. So reusing decorations from the previous holiday makes good sense, because all bets are off once December arrives.

For this piece, I hollowed out a large pumpkin, sanded the outside and painted it antique white using craft paint and a sponge brush. I also painted whatever else was around: a baby pumpkin, squashes and a nearby apple. (Cheap paint as it was, it’s not very thick so either apply several layers or experiment with layering different colors. Gold on top of antique white, for example, gives a pumpkin a really glam patina.)

While all these dried, I picked out some inexpensive flowers from the grocery store (Kroger, ahem): mums and poms-poms in various shades of lavender and purple (that’s right, purple!), rust-colored seeded eucalyptus and green stemmed artichokes.

Back at the house, I lined the inside of the large, hollowed-out pumpkin with saran wrap, placed some pre-soaked oasis inside and then randomly inserted flowers and some greens from the garden. (The eucalyptus draped like a vine over the edges of the pumpkin, which was fortunate because the pumpkin otherwise might have resembled “Wilson” in Cast Away).

I took a mirror from the wall and placed it and all of the painted fruits and veggies on the dining room table, along with a few candles and leaves, and voila: a centerpiece that cost approximately $25 and a couple of hours. Take THAT, squirrels.

Price: $25

Wendy Umamoff
Residential & Retail Stylist

Almost everything I used to create this centerpiece I borrowed from nature. Considering color and texture, I layered these earthy elements of branches, berries, nest and a bird from dark to light.

Beginning with a glass vase as a base I filled it with cranberries for a burst of color and to hold the branch in place. Wrapping burlap ribbon around the neck of the vase softened the transition from vase to branch. Moving up the centerpiece I wrapped silver painted berries to accentuate the lines of the branches and nest. Adding the cranberry to the birds beak offers a little whimsy to your holiday table.

Price: $55

And you get to vote for your fave! Vote here.